Other № 143006
Drowning
No words please, I fear their weight.
I'm too heavy and too proud.
The water tastes like breath
to me, a hot, amorphous cloud.
I'm drowning, friend.
Helplessness overwhelms me.
The surface pulls me thence,
that glassy ceiling where
days pass without consequence.
I speak and I cry,
and neither comes clearly.
But you who drowned me here,
are more in meaning,
than every gesture
that binds my pretty ear.
Eye to eye completely.
Where you pretend my woe.
I'll not take another breath.
For fear my life would show.
For thanks I'll offer each
to you, my wit, my heart, my soul.
If you should wish, then each
should drown, a life in your control.
3 comments
You mention being afraid your life would show, is this meant to indicate a guilty conscience? I noticed you saying you were too proud at the top.
Did you know that drowning is a very peaceful way to die? By the time you're in danger of watching your life flash before your eyes, you're almost completely calm.
On a side note, here's the most famous drowning poem I know:
Not Waving But Drowning
Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.
Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.
Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.
-Stevie Smith
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