Controlling the Silver

River Mumma

53 River Mumma She sits with her back to us, her teased hair is now bleached platinum. She has affixed paillettes of rhinestones and sequins over her shimmering scaled skin (here we have a perfect example of how to gild a lily). Please tell the River Mumma we are here, outside the doors of her underwater clinic. We say this to nurse souls rolling bandages and grinding medicine bluestone in mortars. Though we see how her hairstyle has changed (it used to dip so evenly in regular waves), and we see her lips are stained parrot-fish red and her hobble skirt is bling-bling iridescent, we still bring her this serious crab bite case who is in need of her specialist treatment (hair of dog; water cure for bite of crab), for maybe River Mumma medicine can cure her. We bring a wedge of brown soap for cleansing, a lost wedding ring found, to make payment. Details of one fraudulent agreement we seek to bleed indelible ink from, Mumma please come. All the while the drowned souls drape bandages in long white strips across the clinic’s entrance. Deaf to us, the drowned ones pound bluestone in mortar pestles. We are not acknowledged. ...