Bitter Water by Harris Coverley

​one late autumn
the bitter water spread
through the entire building
filling mouths with a caustic taint
but the tenants did not care enough
to protest,
until the dreams came:
 
DREAD
EVIL
DARKNESS
SADNESS
EMPTY
SO EMPTY
 
a thousand agonies of loneliness
the sum total grief of mere being
the cats howling, the dogs whimpering
a hundred people—men, women, children--
feeling that they were falling, falling, falling...
forever and forever and forever,
until--
 
after two nights of mass distress
the grim hysteria bubbled over
and—making a connection--
they finally sent the super up to the water tank
 
he lifted the lid and there she greeted him:
floating face down, fully clothed
her backpack still about her thin shoulders
her stygian hair clumped like rotting seaweed
 
some of them had been wondering
where she had got to
 
she had been such a nice girl
a little quiet perhaps.

---

Harris Coverley has verse published or forthcoming in Polu Texni, California Quarterly, Star*Line, Spectral Realms, Corvus Review, Spank the Carp, Better Than Starbucks, View From Atlantis, Poets' Espresso Review, Once Upon A Crocodile, The Rye Whiskey Review, 5-7-5 Haiku Journal, and many others. He lives in Manchester, England. Follow Harris on Twitter @ha_coverley.