Marie Kanzinger

Grade: 11

Chagrin Falls High School

Instructor: Jean Kanzinger

After the Bath

Poetry

After the Bath

Inspired by After the Bath by Mary Cassatt

they cling to her
lilac embrace

she washed away
their grass stains
and sticky fingers
and hugged them
so they could feel
her lavender skin
against their own

she drapes fresh clothes
over their shoulders
as they squirm and stretch
testing out their new hands
like they were delicate porcelain
free of the garden's dirt beds

her lemon gaze
slips away to a window
left open for wet bellies
and damp orange curls

but with their clean
pastel hands
and bright-eyed glances
they still hold onto her
not wanting to let go
of their mother's warmth
after the bath