Rusalkas are water spirits in slavic folklore, often portrayed as demons or the the vengeful ghosts of women killed by their lovers, however it is possible that once they were considered gods.

men have called me
    beautiful echoes
gold rose indigo
    this vital flesh
sky’s shadow
    mirror skin
vapor softening
    my soft body
many long nights
    beside this river
a cast down
    feather-soft glance
watching fine mist
    silver river halo
form from itself
    forming itself

perhaps my heart
    stirred in the torrent
rose

        carried somewhere
            during thunderstorms
        rain sinks through me
            reemerges where my form
        becomes the river lost
            hearts for the current

        below the water
            vast rippling disk
        the sky’s dark belly
            concealing iterations

if it’s true that once I was a soul
    I think it is like drinking