Drown (Or, Learning How to Swim the Hard Way)

I’m suffocating.

I can’t breathe.

They tell me it’s easy.

They tell me it’s natural.

They tell me inhale,

exhale

inhale

deep breaths.

But how can you breathe when you are drowning?

How can you breathe below the surface?

Wading beneath the waters,

watching the colors dance on the viscous curvature,

sensual mockery,

“See how easy?”

They jeer as they dance between

the crests of the waves.

I want so badly to break the surface.

If only …

I stretch my desperate hand upward

grasping at the mosaic sun.

Stretched muscles straining as tendons tear,

but I swear,

I swear

my digit can feel

the soft kiss of the wind.