the things i love about wash day

 the way the cool water drips down my back like 

     I am 11 years old

     on the church trip to the water park

     my shoulders their own

     lazy river--sticking 

     my tongue under the spout with my sisters

     letting the streams caress me. letting

     the waves bob me under salty strings.

     hair stiff with chlorine

     back arched against a plastic ring

     filled with air. toes

     gracing the bottom of the sandy pool

     hot pinks and baby blues dotting 

     July sky.

     the smell of meringue

     deep conditioner like butter cookies

     gliding through wavy strands

     of drenched perm hair brings me

     back to my mother’s house. lasagna baking in the oven

     hot oil in the microwave

     how being naked in front of my mother

     is like being naked

     in solitude. my own apartment in solitude--

     cerulean light showers from the ledge 

     of the bathtub window. how 

     Kinky Curly

     makes a lime green shampoo

     for afros that smells

     just like butter cookies & I am back at my mother’s house

     & it is chicken spaghetti this time & my mother watches

     Girlfriends in the background

     while my dog Fluffy is napping

     & I am thinking that maybe me & my

     11-year-old self

     aren’t so different after all