I go down to the water to see the eels.
Their slippery silence entrances me.
I pull off my soft leather shoes, my hose,
hitch up the heavy rolls of my dress and wade in.
Their slippery silence entrances me,
the coils of their bodies roil in the sun.
I hitch up the heavy rolls of my dress and wade in
without thought of fathers or thrones.
The coils of their bodies roil in the sun.
It burns my skin. I go deeper in
without thought of fathers or thrones
and let the cold water climb my thighs.
He burns my skin. I know now, too deep.
The heat abates as I plunge
and let the cold water climb my thighs.
Moss masks an outcrop of rock.
The heat abates as I plunge.
My mermaid hair unfurls where
moss masks an outcrop of rock.
I go down in the water with the eels.
Dayna Kidd Patterson
Dayna Kidd Patterson’s chapbooks, Loose Threads and Mothering, are available from Flutter Press. Most recently, her poems have appeared in Sunstone, Literary Mama, and Segullah, with forthcoming publications in North American Review and Dialogue. She is the Poetry Editor for Psaltery & Lyre.
Art credit: Christine McDermott
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