Mercury-Marvin Sunderland ~ Spilled Bathtub Water Could Never Be Sold

the pat­terned tiles gleam
on bath­room floors
spilled bath­tub water could
nev­er be sold

here i keep my
aro­mas bot­tled and slathered
for every morn­ing shower
lath­er, lather
my lavender

calm, yet another
trapped sun
caged inside
a paper box in the
med­i­cine cabinet

trem­bling hands
car­ry the wealth of
your worship

the water of this
show­er head
pressures
like the dis­gust of
see­ing what you aren’t
in some­one you
wish you could be

spilled bath­tub water
could nev­er be sold
drink me
and taste the reality
of all that ugly
i wash off
every day

i am
trembling
and will
fall into ruin

~

Mercury-Marvin Sunderland (he/him) is a trans­gen­der autis­tic gay man from Seattle with Borderline Personality Disorder. He cur­rent­ly attends the Evergreen State College and works for Headline Poetry & Press. He’s been pub­lished by University of Amsterdam’s Writer’s Block, UC Riverside’s Santa Ana River Review, UC Santa Barbara’s Spectrum Literary Journal, and The New School’s The Inquisitive Eater. His life­long dream is to become the most banned author in human his­to­ry. He’s @Romangodmercury on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.