Plisse Shirt—Grandmother Size:1 and dotted with pearl beads

and dotted with pearl beads at the hem

and palms gazing shyly at their lean reflections

she sat on the couch and tied her hair into a braid

frozen in an India Ink drawing from a Ginza cafe

awake at night

Plisse Shirt—Grandmother Size:1 and dotted with pearl beadsGrandmothers scrub their skin on bright and tiny plastic stools, spraying themselves down with peach hoses. Hair, puffed in a foam meringue, slinks mercurially into a limp, wet silk under a shower head. This bath house is thick with smeared echoes, ricocheting between tiles, mist, breasts, and soap. Other women soak clustered in a bubbling pool. One wears a damp towel as a hat and another is crying. Friends weave their arms in a flesh braid around