Deep Enough to Drown

Joy arrived with fear, in word if not deed,

a nicety providing entry into other ideas:

what does it mean to drown? Breathlessness

came later, two years of captive attention

before any boundary was breached.

How long had I watched the waves

without worrying about their gravity,

without noticing how I'd been pulled

in, under?

Captive to

your tides

for years,

six more,

blissful,

sinking &

suddenly:

darkness,

emptiness

down here

where you

left me--

so cold without your sunlight.