Deluge

I am swept into the deluge

my feet tied to a thousand rocks

hands bound behind my back

in another world, I could swim high above,

but these waters stretch past time's own reach

Could I not give in? Flesh and bone I am

to the sea, but another scrap of driftwood

ensnared in the ocean's iron grasp

the meager threads of what once was

The waters' rushing fills my soul.

I am pulled, but not I go,

For ahead there lies a treacherous goal,

And I am bound, by chains below.

Time has passed, though I have not,

And now's arrived this fateful hour,

The waves consume my every thought,

My prayers the ocean doesn't devour.

I squirm and sink while my limbs fail,

The water stings and burns my eyes,

Before, I swam, yet now I flail,

I see the sea come for its prize.

The water seeps into my head,

And I am lost, within my mind,

I come to wonder if I'll dread

Drowning here, should I resign.

In truth, I once controlled this prison,

And sailed these darkened depths forbidden,

But now I sink, where I had risen,

I cannot rein what I had ridden.

There is a certain silence here,

Somehow, beneath the froth above,

I cannot sense a thing I'm near,

When crushed within this liquid glove.

Could I not escape this mortal trap,

Under this crashing, towering wall?

Within each wave, I feel I snap,

And, in each fissure, the depths call,

And still below, I fear I know,

Is not the quiet that I seek,

The void of nothing, or the blows?

My pain, surely, is for the weak.

I am stuck, yet am I free?

Though keys to locks I cannot see,

And while I hate and dread the wave,

The rest I leave up to the brave.