Lake Baptiste Ungenders Me

upon contact / head first / baptismal

the rind of me / peels into ribbons

of foam / and pearls / i re-brown at the water’s

touch / its two-way mudmirror / hands me

its own name / earthliquid / bottomless

a brown body / within / a brown body / within /

the lake / the altar of my father’s / upbringing

green sanko spinner rod adidas cleat gender

lifeguardlegacy diveschool dreamboat jockboy

5am wake up call ritual / hereditary / crash-boat

inheritance / watch me / clear this dock of my torso

norunningstart / with all the other / brown / boys

at jumpingrock / pencil dive into the tubular / veins

of my lakemother / umbilical / my skin / abalone / parallel

to the ice line of the pines / masculine stillness i muscle

myself onto the back of my own back / reaching

towards the helm of all the boys born after me

i join the tow / unborn in their wake / slaloming

drowned tree honorifics / shirtless sunchest eldest

child / again / again / plunging into the holy dark

of brown limbs / our edges the only scenery / in this womb

i am my kin / my kin / earthliquid / bottomless / indiscernible

from the neck down / limbs / torso / pelvis / could be anyone

could be everyone / i love / all at once / upon contact

i sediment / the brown of me / colouring the entire lake /

i am the dye / fogging up the freshwater / natural unclarity /

natural mash / natural churning / of the weeds / in the motor

Loch Ness / body all scales / brown shimmer / perch-pike boy

freshwater mermaid-olution / gill / gasping / water –

breathing / i spit / out every body’s hook / submerge

in me / and there is only more me / everbrown edgeless