Clean

 

                                                           Nude in the Bath (1936), by Pierre Bonnard

I like to keep myself clean

I sweat a lot, so I need to take showers regularly.

However, a lazy bum like me doesn't like taking his daily bath, so he finds his occasional excuse to skip it.

Of late, I find myself taking a bath more often

I need to keep myself clean.

I wash my hair, I wash my face

I wash my arms, I wash my legs

I wash the rest of my body, as I always do

But when I walk out the shower, I'm still dirty.

I go back in to clean myself

I must keep myself clean.

I wash my lips, I wash my tongue

I wash my nipples, I wash my groin

I scrub and I scrub and I scrub

But I'm still dirty.

The people around me don't notice anything

Everything is just as it was before.

For a while, I forget about it.

Then I see Them around.

The feeling has gripped me again

I have to clean myself

So I scrub my lips, I scrub my tongue

I scrub my nipples, I scrub my groin

Every shower I take seems to produce a fresh layer of muck.

What will it take for me to rid myself of this?

They walk around clean, yet I writhe in the filth.

I shower in isolation, for fear of infecting someone else

But I cannot seem to clean myself.

I wash my nipples, I wash my lips

I wash my groin, I wash my nipples

I wash my tongue, I wash my groin

I wash my groin, I wash my nipples

I wash my lips, I wash my groin

I wash my tongue, I wash my lips