The bathtime song

Lauren Aspery

my mother’s watery lullaby
returns to me whenever I take a bath
emerging from the plughole
and reverberating off the tiles

I like to swim in the water
I like to swim in the water
I like to swim in the water, oh
swim swim swimmy I swim

though I no longer swim in the company
of Do-Re-Mi dolphins or
Winnie the Pooh’s Splash ‘n’ Bubble treehouse

I soak and recall
out-of-tune plastic whistles
and the sharp sting of “no more tears” shampoo