women in the mirror

yes, we are amphibious
between earth and the creek
that plunges so deeply
past the roots we feed
with minerals spun
and the miracles won
from these seemingly webbed feet.

yes, we bow to stoop,
to remember our reflection
and dive away from this image
and words bound up in perception
of role and duty
and form and routine
to plunge away to the vacuous unseen
source of light that stems
from evident mystery

and yes, we will re-emerge
from this pinwheeling tidepool
of murky holy water
that pulls us into ourselves
away from ourselves
revealing all we require
so we might surface again
exhaling from our skin
the subtle primordial oxygen
of that purified invisible layer,
fragile and thin as misty silk
of engendering light
from the sleeping silt