Uisce-Beatha

/Ish-ka Bay-tha/

Noun

1. Rivers from above rise and bubble in our kettles. Leaves, roots, and flowers mix with the clear magma. Our cluttered minds set at ease for a moment before the heat bursts in our hands and reminds us of our mortality.

2. Gentle tides caressing the inside of your lips as your tongue churns them into whirlpools. The rapids that begin at the back of your mouth that bash and leak and feed into the waterfall that roars down your throat. Drops of liquid fire that stumble down your cheeks to meet with the gentle tides forming inside your brackish water cove.

3. Rain numbs the mind and sweeps away life’s troubles. Droplets that seep through your skin and turn your veins to ice. A beacon for troubled wanderers. The key to salvation lies in a pitcher. What drowns our flesh in life, saves and makes clean our souls in death.