Lift your head,

slowly,

like you are coming up for air,

but you don’t really need it.

Not holding your breath?

No.

You’ve been down there

for a long time.

 

In the inky black,

the crushing depths,

the fathom’s arms.

Your consciousness

is rising,

coming up

to meet the Sun

again.

 

I don’t think you know

just how cold it is

down in the deepest reaches

where not much light gets in.

I wonder how you’ll feel

as the Sun falls upon your face,

illuminates your grace

and warms your skin?

 

I must first admit,

that I no longer feared for you.

Gone so long

and I knew,

I would not follow.

Long ago,

I traded my tail

for two legs

and life’s travails

and watched you

still swimming free.

 

It took a little time

before I realized that the sea

was just a prison

we conceded to let hold us in.

And I mourned you again.

 

As I watch you rise,

there is

a hint of fear

in your eyes.

I know it’s nowhere near

what it was.

It is

what it’s become.

 

You draw the air into your lungs

and gasp and cry

and try and fail

to walk,

but you’ve just lost your scales.

 

It’s time to do

the hardest things

in the world

you’ve ever done;

The things we joined the sea

to get away from.

 

Take in that

clear and brilliant sky.

We’ll see it now

until we die.

We’ll keep near

the ocean in our life,

so we can hear

the waves calling at night.

 

But you’re here,

in this world we once escaped.

It’s our time,

no more to waste.

So many challenges to face,

but we will have each other;

we will make it great.

 

I thought I had lost you

to the deep and great unknown,

and then you came home,

no we have so far to go.

I watched you

rise up from the sea

to walk with me,

free,

’til eternity.

 

HG – 2018

 

 

Picture by: Famous Amos Photography