Refracted Limbs

The sun baked my face,

as I dangled my feet

into the creek's cool current.

My shins, pale and rubbery,

looked like they belonged to someone else.

Magnified pebbles on the bed,

and my skin, rippling,

a strange, soft seaweed waving

with every small push of the water.

They moved but weren't moving.

My legs, foreign things,

like I could peel them off

and leave them there,

distorted, beautiful, not quite mine.