To Prevent Hypothermia

Abstract

To Prevent Hypothermia Fatimah Asghar (bio) a confession from a coxswain after the race my teammateskicked the boys off the bus& into the downpour blocked the windowswith their sweatshirts& peeled the wet clothes from my skin, each inchrevealed for them to see.the matted-down disobedient hair plasteredto my brown legs.it took two hungry girls to remove the spandexfrom my paling thighstheir blonde hair a cascade of heaven, water droplets fallingfrom their follicles & stingingmy body, the ports tore [End Page 96] off my shirt & sports bramy nipples lighthousesin a swole ocean, a trail of dark hair running upmy belly. my whole boatwitness to my small naked frame a gulf of shiver in the busaisle. the first time I was nakedin front of someone other than my sister. their own hairlesslegs wisping into their shortsskin ripe as peaches, reaching for my brown body. these girlswhom I had stole glances atwhile we changed, wished I could look like, my lockerroom crew, my 5a.m. practicegirls, my lean over the starboard side so she could pee off the riggergirls, my two-mile run aftereating Annie’s mac-n-cheese girls. they laughed at my nervousness& took turns rubbing the lifeback into my bones offered clothes off their ownbacks to keep me from shaking.my girls, sandwiching me [End Page 97] in their heat until my jointsbloomed, until the warmthblossomed through my blood. what more could I askthan a team willing to undresstheir captain, too cold & rain-glittered to do it alone? [End Page 98] Fatimah Asghar Fatimah Asghar is a nationally touring poet, photographer, and performer. She has received fellowships and residencies from Fullbright, Millay Colony, New Harmony Writer’s Workshop, Kundiman, and VONA. She is a member of the Dark Noise collective and her work has appeared in Poetry, Gulf Coast, the Margins, and the Paris-American. Her chapbook After was published by YesYes Books in 2015. Copyright © 2015 University of Nebraska Press