Ship Drowning
when you dragged me away,
I was a ship at sail.
and your hefty, husky rope wrapped taut around my hull,
like a noose,
flexed around my neck.
suffocation is an obtuse concept to me.
the bottom part of the ship is below water.
the icy sea is up to my throat,
like the blade of a knife tight against flesh,
the cold metal allowing little beadlets of blood to form.
death by asphyxiation.
I black out.
the darkness and control encloses my vision.
hands clamped all around my shoulder and arms,
pulling me away from everything good:
the familiar streets i’ve driven on countless times, the friendly faces i’ve had numerous fundamental
memories with of poor and strong situations, the nostalgic feel of the local grocery store with the
memorized food lanes and buzzing, blinking fluorescent lights
to everything not:
the unknown.
Madeline Schimka