Red the Water

The bath swirls red

Brings memories of thoughts

Once harbored; now hidden safe

Within dark gardens of broken

Hearts and pools of blood

Blossoming noiselessly, gashes

Rent from soft teenaged skin

Secrets torn from vein and muscle

Calling like unrepentant misery

…and loneliness

With words long forgotten

Once spoken, quietly; whisper

To the self whose cracking

Voice cried out for death

For some imagined afterlife

Haunting those whose words

Had torn the soul and

Left the spirit broken

Yearning to open veins and

Render waters red

Crimson rivers slip like ink

Down swirling drains

Emotions rise, and memories

Of youthful dreams turned

Fearful rear back their poison

Heads, prepared to strike

Stop. A moment silent.

A breath.

Lift hand from water, clean

Rivulets of red drip from hair

Dye. A sigh — response to an illusion

Triggered.

© Suzy Jacobson Cherry

This piece was inspired by a recent experience I had while washing my hair three days after having dyed my hair red. That last layer of color hadn’t completely washed out when I rinsed and conditioned after the treatment, and I had thought for sure it had. As I watched the last remnants of color go down the drain, I was transported for a moment to thoughts from my “tortured youth.”

~~~

This poem was first published in Bouncin' and Behavin' Poems on Medium