Water Torture                                                                                           

Before the plague
Raw hands wept

Allergy, OCD
& conditions dormant this quarter century
Skin porous

Even water
Caustic on infected eczema

Chapped & ripped as I slept

Or: the very minimum of requirements
_____(Expectations floor level)

From here to Flint, Michigan
Far more than trace elements

Allodynia
Water torture
‘Not on the face’

Stephen C. Middleton is a writer working in London. He has had five books published, and been in several anthologies. He was editor of Ostinato, a magazine of jazz and jazz related poetry. He has been in magazines worldwide, including in the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, & mainland Europe.