Restwater

Day 6
Poem 6

Today I looked at various prompts about looking at things from different angles, and I kept coming back to Emerald City again. This started out as a poem about Tip/Ozma – a character with two names, two sides, two stories, two genders. But the particular scene I was writing about brought to mind another Oz character, so I wrote a second part about Saint Aelphaba, based on Gregory Maguire’s Wicked and Tales Told in Oz. The title is the name of a lake in Oz.

Restwater

I. Ozma

I wake underwater, eyes blurred, mind clear. I don’t worry
about drowning though my skirts tug heavy
at my hips.

Once, in my other life, I held my breath and slipped
into the lukewarm bath to test if I could wash away this body and surface
as someone new. But no scars vanished
when I rose.

I force myself up towards the light and while my body
is unchanged, something inside is, new voices straining
to come out and scream, echoing, about all the ways we’ve
been done wrong.

I move slower now, water streaming
from my skirts. I don’t dry myself. The wet wants
to come with me. Up and up, surfacing, seeking the hands
that carried me to the water and
let me go.

II. Aelphaba

I sleep under the falls, water
falling, falling, spray
tucked about me, blanket and shield.
A girl needs protection and moats
are hard to come by. The falls,
this cave, a blessing.
A river turns, tumbling,
tumbling over stones,
through stones, carving
a space large enough for one.
My home, my sanctuary. Someday
I will wish to see the world
dry and undistorted but
for now I’m drifting, drifting,
safe behind the water, safe.

To Call the Lost Forward

Day 25
Poems 23 and 24

I wanted to work with a story about transformation in response to recent political happenings. I found myself drawn to the ending of Out of Oz. In the scene that is the climax of the novel, a witch performs a spell that returns all who are under some sort of transformation and disguise into their true selves. There are some unintended consequences that end up driving a wedge between the main character and her lover. The fact that Rain and Tip ended up going their separate ways is probably the part of the book that disappointed me the most.

To Call the Lost Forward

“They stole glances at each other, the green girl and the queen of Oz. Those forgotten called forward, against their wishes, into themselves.”
—Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire
 
 

One incantation and we’re both laid bare, the maps
of our bodies changed, landmarks gone.
You are beautiful and I, I don’t know quite what
I am, only that I’m not what you bargained for.
 
Rain

This skin is unmistakable.
This skin makes me my grandmother, all the loathing and love of her.
This skin has always been there on the inside but now it’s turned out, painful.
This skin bears the burns from your fingerprints on its surface even though it is unlike anything you’ve ever touched.
This skin is sticky with you though nothing will ever be the same.
This skin will never feel you again.
This skin may never feel anything but the sting of night air.
This skin doesn’t feel like mine, so I pull my hair over my face, curtain myself away for just one last breath as me, alone.

Tip

When the shock clears I realize this
is who I am, this is why for years I felt the itchings
of something not right. Now everything fits me
but you. I love you still, I would hold you to this new body,
curve into you, show you every inch of me. But your shock
is disappointment, you yearn to back away. You will go
and mourn me and I will be alone, myself
but alone. Don’t you see these eyes, still the ones you looked to,
these hands that touched you, these lips?
I don’t dare speak with this new voice, don’t call
when you turn away. I watch you, I love you just a few moments
longer. Tonight I’ll sleep off our goodbye,
tomorrow begin anew.