Comme Un Bébé

© Hanna Postova

Comme un bébé.

Like a baby, she said,

as she covered my head with a coarse towel

patting my hair dry

in the wet heat of the hammam.

Mais ça fait longtemps que tu n’es plus un bébé.

But it’s been a while since you’ve been a baby, she gently scolded.

I could take care of myself now.

Relinquishing my power to a man is not the same as honoring him.

She continued to pat my face dry,

watching me intently with her deep brown eyes.

She had scrubbed my body hard,

scrubbed me clean of yesterday.

Tu vois?

You see? She asked.

She pointed to my dead skin,

now a hundred dark particles,

sloughed off,

the muck of my mistake,

washing down the drain.

Maintenant tu oublies.

Va t’allonger un peu.

Now you forget, she said.

Rest a bit.