Waters
Waters
Every minute and every moment,
Finding ourselves cast adrift amidst a boundless ocean,
Treading water desperately trying to keep our heads afloat,
Crying out for help in silent voices lost amongst the terrifying cacophony of crowning waves threatening to crash down around our heads at any moment,
Thankful at times nonetheless,
Lest our fathomless despair draw near the sharks even as they already circle,
Weakness laid bare for them to see,
To have them drag us down beneath the tumult of that surface,
Never to see the light again.
So we dare not founder,
Because we hold no doubts that what lies beneath is so much worse.
We know too well the darkness that we fear to let take hold.
Because it would swallow us whole,
And so we tread the waters,
Moving ever beyond all measure of endurance we felt we had,
Beyond the point where sanity and exhaustion dictate that we should long ago have given up,
And surrender as if inevitable whatever of ourselves we still retained throughout the storm,
Never moving forwards,
But at the very least we hold our own.
We never dare to believe that we could have more,
That there's more than to simply be what we are in that lost moment,
Because in daring to believe we have to admit that we could fail,
And the shame of our peers pressing down upon us would cast our very souls into that bottomless abyss,
And so to try would be to fail,
As certain as the tempest that rages all around,
The only thing left to keep us going glimmering in that faint hope that maybe,
Just maybe,
Holding our ground could ever be enough.
Until that unimaginable day ever present just around the corner lifts a sun so high,
So bright,
That the fathoms below us seem perhaps not quite so deep,
And then it may show us before the waves come crashing down,
That if we stop treading and find ourselves brave enough to look down,
Daring ourselves to try so that our feet will touch the sandy bottom.
And we'll stand.
And we will rise.
We'll live in that instant when we can cast our gaze above the waves.
And we'll know we did it.
Not because they expected us to but in spite of the fact they expected us to fail,
Because despite it all there was that small something deep down inside that made us keep going through and wouldn't let us quit.
Because we can.
Because we do.
Because we did.
Because whatever else they throw our way we know how to tread those waters.