Sinking/Rising

 

In the middle

of a great lake, maybe a sea.

Empty blue, all I can

see through

panic soaked eyes.

Water consuming

my dampened spirit. I linger.

Feet slashing the water

over the precipice

of the deepening abyss.

 

The sky slams down on me,

coffin lid clouds. Hammered down

in thunderstrike heartbeats.

 

Flailing, thrashing,

I sink fast. Pressure

from all sides. Crushed lungs

want to scream.

 

Help me.

Free me.

I am the image the dead see.

Lifeline failing.

But to open my mouth

would be to fill myself

in the Dead Sea.

 

So I clamp my jaw tighter.

Fear blinks silent cries.

 

Absent light churned

into darkening shadows

fill the liquid fear of my descent.

I am in stasis. A traveller

to a distant universe.

 

Save me.

Whispers in bubbles from my lips,

I watch them

rise, skipping starlight

specks in the murkiness.

 

My eyes drift as my limbs fall

still.

A stone in a glass jar.

Flatline.

Waiting for

the eternal tomorrow.

 

See me. I let out the last air,

and watch my eyelids

as I fall into the vacuum of fear.

 

Fingers interlocking,

shocking my heart.

Defibrillator love as I open my eyes.

 

The sight. Haloed beauty

holds me in her wings.

 

I've waited my whole life

to feel the feather-soft heart

that sits so perfectly aligned with mine.

 

As she pulls me closer

to her chest, we rise to the surface.

Lips pressed to mine,

breathing hope into my raising lifeline.