Waterways

she had plummeted

swept under

Acheron’s raging currents

drowning in the depths

she stagnated

in foul brackish pools

toxins pervading every pore

she slithered

on scaled snakebelly

from immersion in noxious lagoon

crawled through mud and muck

briar patch scratched

stench of her debasement

malodorous effluvium

perpetual leaching

skin and soul

keening for renewal

she stumbled upon

crystalline pools

burbling

springs of amnesty

stripped to the bone

she tiptoed trepidatious

into waters of absolution

parched dermis

quenched in soothing amity

reconstitutes

whole

she stands erect

poised

to dive again

into rivers of life