Bilge Water n.
1 . (Naut.), water which collects in the bilge or bottom of a ship
or other vessel. It is often allowed to remain until it becomes very
offensive.
Isabel, I'm don't want to be alone.
Not solitary in the way some people say
She is a stone on the shore. I'm more like a color
before someone dips into it.
But don't mistake my intentions, Isabel.
Don't go crashing into places like Virginia
just because they're green, or because someone
has seen me naked there.
When you clog your hair
in the bathtub drain, I'll drink the water,
call myself beautiful or fallen like debris
and we'll bend the roofs of broken houses,
spin rain into silk to cover the coast.
2. (Naut.) that part of a ship's hull or bottom which is broadest
and most nearly flat, and on which she would rest if aground
I fight the dream of drought by dreaming water.
Your boat cutting the water in half. But the bathtub
tipped when climbed inside.
I'm not swimming anymore.
There’s a semaphore, a man waving
from the scaffold, and a suicide,
upset by the storm, who decided to paint
his name on the bathroom.
I know the ocean's playing poker. This time, calling
to see my cards. And if I drew a spade
in the shape of a sail, or fought
the water under the floor, or even if I lit
your mouth with my mouth,
the power outage would have killed someone.
Someone decending the stair in the dark.
3. Slang. Nonsense.
Isabel, I asked for the sea to exhaust me.
I wanted salt, ports, something
to swallow my quarters. No white caps
or sad fish—no mermen.
But the sound that you sent, is like no sound at all,
bulging in the ears ‘til the balance stones break
—the weight on your back, weight in your mouth.
When fake-summer Florida draws
up its purse, a sail rudders hard
like a single deletion.
It knifes the sea open, spills all of its silver.