Cataract
A shower is essentially a cleansing ritual.
Replace the salt with foaming body wash
the blessed candles with flickering fluorescents
behind the yellowing curtain is a sacred act
a reclaiming
a reckoning
insert here that fact about all the cells in your body being replaced after 7 years
pray that it's faster
this time soap can't speed up cellular regeneration but try anyway
pray that you stop feeling his snaking touch
even in places it never reached
call the elements to their corners as you scrub
try not to go too deep, fail
make black salt out of your own tears mixing with
clumped mascara you forgot to wash out
banish banish banish
Rachael Gay is a poet and artist living in Fargo, North Dakota. Her work has appeared in felan, Eunoia Review, Daily Gramma, errata Magazine, Literary Orphans, Freezray Poetry, Bitterzoet Magazine, and The Bookends Review. More of her work can be found at witchinghourpoetry.tumblr.com.