Sandra Kohler
Waters

My sister — sleeper,
swimmer — enters
my dream’s waters:
a heedless plunge
into slime, murk,
seaweed strewn
depths, their color
a brown which
is green a green
which is brown.

My sister is not
afraid — though alive
these waters would
have threatened
her with what she
feared, hated:
slithering reptilian
forms terrifying to
her in old age as
in childhood.

My sister is dead
and free of her fear
of snakes, her fear
of murky waters,
of depths. Dead,
my sister is finally
able to be brave,
free finally of
the oldest parts
of her self.

<< return to the Table of Contents for New Series #6: Winter 2018, Volume 3 Number 2