The Drowned Woman by Esther Beland

The Drowned Woman

On the other hand, the concept of rigid bodies has meaning only in a mechanics satisfying the group G_∞.

—Hermann Minkowski, “Space and Time”

Ectoplasmic telegraphilaments

tumored in her windpipe

like chromatin,

gill-slits resurfaced

from the depths

of last year’s tidepool.

Booby-tongued autopsegao

for the coroner’s pleasure —

her horny feet retreat.

How much water can a woman drink?

She’d drink the sea

(if the sea were a glass of water).

How much water can a woman think?

She’d think the sea

(if only the sea had a daughter).

Ectoplasmic telegraphilaments

go mute

entombed the hermitage of her voice;

the Sambre shambles on,

a light rail hearse,

a caravel licking its plague-rats clean.