It ties around your neck
Weighs you down,
The leash is taut
And sharp and heavy
And sometimes you can flip your fins
just enough to graze the surface.
It reels me, steals my breath
A path of moldy breadcrumbs
The road to hell is paved
With intermittent bursts of loss
And strength.
The rippled silhouettes of sunlight
Out there, legs are required for jumping and dancing.
Air is required for fire to burn.
Down here it’s the worst of both worlds.
I can’t swim. I can’t burn.
Asphyxiated, by lack of air and lack of home.
Ariadne’s thread reels me through the maze
and repeatedly tells me to start again.
Anchors are the mermaid’s gallows.
I wonder how long I’ll last…
Grasping at bubbles for a gasp,
Sisyphing through life,
I’m tired of drowning and being reeled back,
And it will be so until I fade away.
The mermaid in me will die in the depths of my past,
gills rendered useless by the anchor, there’s no other way.
And I cry.
While I’m tied
I can never swim again.
By: Krystel J. Bravo
