Poetry

Five things you didn’t know about water


The surface tension in a drop of water is enough
to hold a world in,
if the world is small enough,

A cubic meter of salt water contains five hundred million tears
and tears are what you are made of — salt and water and pain and relief

The distance between you and me can be measured in drowned fishermen,
ships lost at sea, shipboard romances, and tidal waves

When you sweat, your frustration comes out in rivulets,
meaning you have many avenues for relieving your stress:
heat and hard work are not your only choices, but they do the job
if you let them

I brought you this glass of water
because I don’t have any comfort to give you
so I comfort myself
with this wet
gift

Serene Vannoy is a fat, bisexual, polyamorous, atheist feminist thinly disguised as a boring, middle-aged housewife. She lives in the Oakland area with her partners and kid, works at University of California, Berkeley, publishes a small-press literary magazine (www.42magazine.com), and blogs about comfort food at www.MomFoodProject.com.