A Bleak Rebirth

(tw: drowning)

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Hold me still beneath the water

I will not fight you

It is my rite of passage you say 

You lie me down 

Pin my arms and shoulders to the floor

We both watch the water come

Raging down the ridge to swallow me

Trapped beneath your weight

I am not afraid

It must be another surrender

Have you ever drowned?

Do you know the cold ache of 

Water filling your lungs to burst

The edges of vision gone grey as static

I promised I wouldn’t fight

Limbs go weak and numb and cease

Have you ever returned?

Nothing hurts more than that cough

The pressure of hands on my chest

Of a mouth breathing life into mine

Only an instinct left, to survive

It is a bleak rebirth

One of exhausted saviors 

Reverent victims

Soaked each to the bone

Empty and shivering and broken