NEW POEM: Wash Over Me

Today I continue my celebration of Mental Health Awareness Week (10th - 26th May) and its theme for 2021, Nature. Each day this week I'll be sharing a new poem that links with this theme. Tuesday brings "Wash Over Me".

Wash Over Me

A Poem by Simon Clark

(Written to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week, 10th – 16th May 2021)

He said,

“Have you ever felt dirty? Soiled? Sullied by the day?”

“Of course I have”, I said,

He said,

“Have you ever felt abused? Spoiled? Surplus like a stray?

“All the time”, I said,

He said,

“Have you ever felt ignored? Unseen? Unblessed in their eyes?”

“From time to time”, I said,

He Said,

“Have you ever felt prejudged? Unclean? Unloved and despised?

“Every day”, I said.

So….

I stood there with my thoughts,

Those cages with bars so close together,

Tightly racked that even a Post-It can’t squeeze through,

What on Earth was I meant to do?

I went to the seaside,

All the pavements shouted salt and vinegar,

The rickety old huts that lined the shore painted baby blue and white,

I felt sand in my toes,

A crisp British Spring whipped at my kneecaps,

The sea, infused with seaweed and France, came rolling in to sight.

It splashed my thighs,

A cold unforgiving chill that refreshed the dry skin,

The fragments of shell spiking my thighs like the purge of an oceanic sprite.

I stripped out of my clothes,

Those conforming symbols of confinement,

Tightly stretched over every unpleasing contour,

What were these clothes really good for?

I lay myself down naked,

Feeling the moist sand gripping against my spine,

Then wave after wave of coldest blue drenched me and soaked me to bone.

I let it wash over me,

Fighting the urge to burst through the foam to gasp,

Then so gently the waves purified me and connected me but not to a phone.

It was full of people,

Frantically playing their games and unaware of the trick,

Then there was me surrounded by peace in the noise, Triton on his throne.

That’s how I stayed,

Letting the water sanctify, purify and wash,

That’s how I stayed until the last drop wave of the sea decided to drift

drift

drift

drift

drift

drift

drift

drift

drift

drift

drift

away.

© Simon Clark 2021