Poem: "Message In A Bottle"

On days where I feel willing to

take a dive into your ocean

in an attempt to salvage

the cargo of a sunken ship

I find myself questioning

why I ever let your salt

into my own wounds

like it's the only thing I'd

ever allow to get

under my thick skin

or why I keep choosing to jump ship

on moonless nights

thinking if I sank deep enough

there'd be an "other side"

whose surface I could break through

only instead there's just an

abyss I keep visiting

and the end escapes me

and the further I go

each time I dive

somehow the answer tries

to become

less and less clear

as if I couldn't already

sea floor

and somehow

even away from the water

I can still feel the pressure

coaxing, compelling, then

commanding with every wave

in vast, numerous ways

yet the message is the same:

insatiable and hungry for shore

but I know

issues don't spill over

like this

the way oceans do

without first being filled

with problem after problem

left unresolved

until the truth

is swallowed up

by pitch black

silence

-------

inspired by being forced to let a friend go.

more works available on my instagram: @ephrain_