1/1/97
i said in a whisper
               for all of you to hear i said 
`i now wash away all the pain and the 
fear of 1996
          and i thought some more
`i now wash away the pain and the fear of 1995, 
and 1994, and 
indeed 1993, and 1992, and 1991, and
          i said softly, for everyone listening
`All of my years of existance
          and i thought i would make clean
          the year of ninteen-hundred and 
          ninty-seven, and i drew my face closer to the water.
                  i thought nothing more, but drew my last
                                                long
                                                deep
                                                breath,
     and let it out so slowly
            then i held my nose and thought how 
            good to be clean. . . . . . 
and i took my entire body into the lukewarm bathwater
                 and 
                 then 
                  i 
                thought  
                 how 
                 clean
                     i 
                       could 
                            be. . . . . . . . . . . . . .








and then i lived.   





copyright 1997 Rachael Lee