Crab Orchard Review Vol. 12, No. 2, our

Chanda Feldman
Immersion
In Judaism, the mikvah is a pool
of living waters for ritual immersion.
To enter the mikvah, a woman exits the day.
At twilight, she undresses—scrapes away
dirt from beneath her nails, scrubs
the skin’s crevices. She puts aside her wedding
ring. Her body’s rich bed emptied
of the month’s possibility. A woman dismantles
her braided hair so she may yield to the fluid
drape, her eyes open, lips parted, her
feet raised from earth. The uninhibited touch
of water—as at the start when water was all—
seals her from air, cradles her flesh’s weight,
so she may whisper her prayers wholly into God’s mouth.
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