The stagnant water reflects rays of moonlight
peeping through the canopy of tropical trees.
Hard, cold plastic encloses
a compilation of condensation
splashing off the sides of banana leaves
stretching into the open room.

I reach a hand stained purple and yellow with iodine
into the depths, see the liquid swallow it
as the vibrant colors seep into the water.
Fear is stripped away
with the clothes that layer my body,
peeling like the sock from my left foot,
now damp from the tiles of this shower.
Energy pours over me
with the cold splash dropped upon my head,
excitement increasing in volume as the bucket empties.

Unaccustomed, I stare down at my exposed body
immersed in this foreign water.
Refined by the unknown,
submerged in another world
as surely as my unveiled skin
in the water of this country,
presented in a single accumulated bucket.

I see a t-shirt strewn carelessly in the concrete corner,
take in the pile of unscented shampoo and bodywash by the bucket.
Standing exposed in a foreign shower,
the reality of adventure hits me.
it leaves me stark naked and peeled back,
past the bone, straight to the heart.
My hand comes up, holding the handle of the scoop,
and spills the water over my head with the traces of moonlight