Baptism

Baptism

He stands close to me
Waste deep in the small pool
Set within the podium floor.
Mood lights shine down
Hot beams into my just-combed hair.

Something brushes my leg
And I quickly raise my foot.
What strange creature
Lives within this strange pool?

Sand now sifts between toes
And the ocean surf tickles hairs.
A naked woman swims near
Staring at me through shaded eyes.

There is a red place on her chest
Sitting over her heart
And it seems as if it is uncomfortable
Although she does not notice.

Seeing the mark 
Makes me instinctively reach up
To touch my own chest
Where I find an itch of my own.

He returns and steps between,
Back to me and facing her
And so he moves in closer 
Doing something to her I cannot discern.

I see then he has changed her mark
Into the detailed tattoo of a tree
With drooping leaves
That seem to move in an odd breeze.

He then takes both her hands in his
And with eyes squeezed closed
He lowers her slowly down into the waves.
Then like magic she is gone .

"Thank you, Dad," I say.
I know for sure that she has been reborn.
Fish touches my leg
Then moves through the water
Creating a whirlpool on the surface.

This is my Journey
--Owl

8"x8" ink and graphite on paper with digital manipulation