Beloved trope
The draw of liquid
Water’s sensuality
Skinny-dipping
Rain and kissing scenes
Showers and sex scenes
Phoebe Cates emerging from that pool
The guile of liquid
Insidious femininity
Nereids, nymphs
Melusine, mermaids
Selkies, Sirens
Scylla, Charybdis
It rains on us
and maybe we open our arms
Waves crest our feet
and maybe we let them
We put our bodies inside
and it welcomes us
Wanton nectar
in which we choose to plunge.
Jasmine O M Taylor is a pākehā, bisexual, Pilates-enthusiast poet. She is a graduate of the University of Otago, and lives in Ōtepoti with her love and two ridiculous cats. Jasmine is a member of Dunedin’s Octagon Collective and has had work published in Landfall, NZPS Anthology 2018 The Unnecessary Invention of Punctuation, Catalyst, Overcommunicate, and takahē.
