“Ode to Flotation Device: Stroke Pull” was first published in DESIRE and FLOTATION DEVICES: A Vis-a-Vis Society Study and Field Notes inspired by the art of Debra Baxter and was accompanied by a series of interactive surveys and reports via song and overhead projector at her “I want you to want me” opening at Ballard Fetherston Gallery in 2005. It appeared in The Monarch Review in April 2012.
ODE TO FLOTATION DEVICE: STROKE PULL
You forced my head down.
I force the head down.
I describe thou as torture.
I am wetly discarded.
You caused me to struggle.
Held tightly, not looked at.
Make broad mine shoulders.
I am the truth of weak shoulders.
Thou didst strengthen my stroke.
Reviled for your weakness.
Grasped between thighs.
Between countless thighs.
My reliance on legs.
I cradle your legs.
Thou revealed my dependence.
I bind and I strap.
I didst look for thou.
I force the head down.
Rachel Kessler 