DIY Baptism

With the hard bristle brush
I take to my flesh
like a soiled sheet.
Soon water-
the shower is carbolic,
and I let it drown
these blackened lungs.

In this heated purgatory
I am baptising myself.
My sins must be atoned
with a finger of soap
and a ragged flannel.
The heat of the water
is a well deserved flagellation:
drips searing loveless flesh
as I force the dial to the left
it is a celebration-

For as the oil seeps my pores
I pray my faults to drip as well.
Oh!- I can feel them swell,
lodge out my breath
and die from me,
’til all is well.