We stand, two women
in the locker room
after a swim.

Flo tells me
her mother died.
'There's been so much,
planning,
and sorting of things.
I haven't had time to mourn.'

I listen.
Flo speaks.
'I say Kaddish at the temple.
That's my time.'

We compare traditions,
Jewish and Christian.
One of each,
a motherless Christian,
a motherless Jew.
Wisps of grace
spun across the blue tiled floor.

Flo gestures to her bare body,
thoughtful.
'Here I am.'

She is.
A vision of the muse,
revived by motion,
compelled by longing
to honor life
and death
and nakedness
in passing.

Two women,
one clothed,
one bare,
standing still
after a swim.

Public domain painting Degas, After the Bath

POEMS