Katherine Tria Kehoe
I wanted to know if God still loved me
As I floated above the watery tank.
I decided I was an otter. I would flee,
But my heart was the only thing that sank.
It sank to the bottom of the murky pool,
And I watched it lying like a dead fish.
I wanted to save it but I was a fool—
Just an otter who could only wish.
I wanted to know if God still loved me
When I decided I would swim only to drown,
But I would be happiest knowing I was free—
Wearing only a black leather otter gown.
I am skin, and fin, and a thousand scars.
I am water and land, if you only knew
That the waves that kept me inside those bars,
Were the waves that brought me closer to you.
Could God really still love me—let me be
For the person he could no longer see?
