Cinderella at bath

Cinderella at bath

the afternoon sun
stretched cat-like
down her face,
sunk eyes in shadow pools,
bejeweled her lips and slipped
on teeth and tongue.

her chin, twinned
and waved by breath and pulse,
pulled ripples
over breasts and belly.

hands and knees
rose like islands,
ivory skin awash and lost
in water gone
from hot to warm.

and hair dream-drifted
around that perfect face,
as lashes swept cheeks clean
of evening’s emptiness.