The Bath

When it’s this cold you savor that moment. The sound of fluid wrestling through pipes is a promise.

The steam rises and instantly converts to an icy vapor.  Swirling vortexes of crystals appear like hallucinations.

You step through it and immerse yourself in a moment of comfort. If you’ve succeeded, it will be as hot as you can tolerate.

This is when you like being human.

 

After those first delicious moments though, we begin to adjust.

Our bodies strike a balance with that temperature.

Exhilaration is replaced by satisfaction.

Later still, we even start to cool.

 

Is there any hot water left?

What if there isn’t?

If we try to add hot, we may instead be getting cold.

That would make the bath intolerable and spoil our last refuge for heat.

If there is hot water, there may be

a second chance at being warm.

It will never be like when you first stepped in.

That moment has passed and eventually you’ll have to get out.

Did you even need to bathe, or was the heat just too much to pass up?

 

Some days it’s better to stay dirty.