Water, Water Everywhere

by Peter Mason
 
“Sibling sexual abuse is identified as the most common form of familial sexual abuse…plagued by definitional inconsistencies, data limitations, and inadequate research methodology. Trivialized as ‘normal’ sexual exploration…Results highlight the need for expanded definitional criteria.” 
—Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, Volume 20, Issue 4, 2011, Jessie L. Krienert & Jeffrey A. Walsh
 
Welcome to the dawn of the haunted./ Kingdom of what, or whether,/ Or not, I wanted it.
—Cynthia Cruz, "Wonder Room"

 
Let me tell you about the water
and what lives in her
belly; her kind of thirst
 
that swallows children
with the tide; a sunken city—
memory poured in the lake
 
like a genny; the dredged and returning
hum; her teeth that grind piles
of bodies between
 
them—or, even if it is just my own
atrophic quiet; a porous unease blanketing
the throat; this soaked unearthing; all the sand
 
is red, sifting at the bottom—
how many times can I fail
at dying before giving each moment after
 
something other than her name; here, I am
still breathing above the blue and endless her.