VINYL POETRY

Volume 4, October 2011

BIRDIE
Caroline CrewView Contributor’s Note

The Bath

Becoming a volcano is the least perplexing aspect
of this situation.
I understand how bodies soak
up heat from bathwater and that

islanded knees and breasts are,

like any archipelago,
connected below the surface.
The question of dormancy is redundant.

What matters is more crucial.
Think elemental.

Consider how this water is dragged up too high
for its level, how parts of air are locked down

into blasphemous globes and how the half quivering
liquid of flesh is anchored and solid.

We will not be the first to debate the status of lava,
or ask the elements to play
different parts for an hour,
but I am not getting out till the ceiling is on fire.