| Mercury Rising Legs kick back, splayed, push. Liquid propulsion lifts and supports my release as I pull cup hands back. Muscles reach and recline. Like a frog in a spring pool. Stroke, glide, stroke. Blue light scintillates under the hydrostatic membrane, that seeming skin that separates the realms of the air from its aquatic substrate. This film pushes up and rolls over me as I flow into forward motion, swimming. I accept its embrace. Mirror under, I look up as breath escapes me. This world knows different rules; breath leaves in small spheres of chrome, gasping for the sky kingdom, struggling to return to the anonymity of air. Here they are individuated, shimmering bubbles, morphing like mercury rising. But, like the souls of Nepalese monks ascending to the ocean of soul, they seek to escape from this denser plane. Swimming, swimming, the reflection of the dancing surface suggests that the aquatic sphere continues in its infinitude, until upon emergence the mercury curtain gives way. I drink now, feeling the waters’ incredible power to flow its shape into the streambed of my throat. Like the frog that eats his own tail from within to metamorphose from a creature of aquatic realms to a denizen of both kingdoms, I fast. I eat my own tissue, reaching from the interior caverns of reclining cell walls. The membranes of fascia that carry those ancient emotions, glide, kick back, release. I am the will of ascension, the ocean soul. Pour from pores, skin is sloughed away. Like the steam room wherein my skin breathes small spheres of release, shimmering bubbles glide from me while my body accepts the waters’ mercury rising. written in January 21st, 2001 |