My head hurts.

My bag is heavy.

I feel it pull my shoulders down

to my aching feet; To the ground.

My back, oh my back.

The brisk wind slaps me.

My bones ache.

My body stiff against the attack.

I get home tired like the old books

I’ve carried all day.

On my back; in my head.

I put one bag down but

The other two that I carry

Stay under my eyes.

I can’t do my work, not after today.

My lips are cracked and raw.

I am raw.

I am stripped bare.

I turn the faucet and hear the thundering hit my ears.

And my head pounds and my heart pounds and

The wind and the day and the week and

The work and the month and the day have

Stripped me bare.

My feet soften as I step in and

The hot water flows over my bare body;

The soothing, scalding, soft yet amazingly

Strong water is able to assuage me.

I may be stripped bare,

But now I am clothed in warmth, healing and pleasure

drifting away in my own personal sea

and right now I feel like I know the true meaning of

holy water.

Drowning in that warm, wet water

Saved me from drowning.

As my cracked skin becomes saturated,

I let it drain away.

I feel it pull my body down into the porcelain yet 

My day my work my week my month my ache

goes down the drain.

I feel heavier

and lighter

all at once.