Subject : Beretania Reflecting Pool Author : Gemini Date : 4/2/2002 11:54:57 PM

Tatia, at twenty four, naked of words, immaculate and ballet-lamed, sweats through shabby nights, seasick, and prays to bleed; wakes afternoons to the needle, expired milk and last night's Thai-- eaten with fingers instead of chopsticks, like a child or beggar; stumbles in her hobbled-pony way under the weight of this sin-stripped, raw and wounded thing that wants to be a woman. Tatia, at twenty-four, believed, the day she bled, in the grace of Heaven and perfection of the Saints; made confession at her father's church, then laid herself at the feet of 'Our Lady of Sorrows,' face down in the reflecting pool, and let the algae-thick, green rotted waters close.