Perform Me | Rosemary Johnson

Renditions of slight tapping
And soft footsteps
Spring into existence
In the heavy resting places
That exist in my mind.
Those places of memory
Those places of steeping stillness
Where you look into the water
And you’re content with only seeing the surface.
The strangeness of what is underneath
You cannot know
You cannot see.
Chant the rendition
Repeat that line again,
Only hum it quietly,
Still like,
The water is sleeping.
Actually,
Hardly move.
The eyes of everyone look up
And move in unison
Around the recital hall
That empty tapping
Echoing footsteps
All these people.
Their eyes move like a school of fish
No one knows who leads it
And the water helps feed it
So consumed you don’t even feel it.
One figure leads
The entertainment pulls their eyes
Like a magnetic force,
Just the eyes.
Keep them afloat
Do not drain the company
But am I supposed to be okay with this.
This company,
This presence.
So aware of them and yet,
Sitting in the slow places
Cycling in the muted phases.
I’m sitting in the bathtub as the water drains
Still under the gaze
The warmth is slowly leaving
And I can’t go with it
I will have to get out.
But for the while I will sit
Dazed and naked
As the water sinks, down, down
Humming this magic rendition.