Claw-foot Tub

A long hot bath inside a claw-foot tub
much older than the woman soaking in its
bliss, a gift at end of one long day. She turns
this way and that, remembering the floaty feeling
as a little girl when lying on her stomach
in the water, half a century ago and even then,
you know, this house had seen some eighty years
already, known the soil of children getting ready
for their Sunday best, or maybe women much
like her, luxuriating at the end of day before they
climbed into the coolness of crisp sheets, permission
granted finally to close their eyes and rest in peace.


(c) Ellen Gillette, 2014