To a pair of blue jeans—

Perhaps the lather was enough!
Yet … I scrubbed you clean—

Peeling layers
Left by
Unknown lanes and unwalked roads,

And by shaky fingers and trembling lips

Which perhaps paused briefly

At the zip.

I scrub some more…

Am I a mermaid still?

In these jeans of yours

With their names still on it?

Should I clean the traces

Or let them remain?
The choice isn’t mine to make.
I scrub some more…

Even as I know
I won’t ever do this again!

The ritual of cleansing
Has freed me of legs

And given me fins.