Armed only with the astrolabe of your heart
The compass of your mind,
The maps of your memory
On a ship that¹s only as seaworthy as you are
With full sails at high tide
Under a steady breeze that propels you
Forward
Further
Towards the South Pole
Under the silhouette of a great white bird
And as you shoot it and find ways to justify what you¹ve done
You hope and pray
And sink like lead into the sea
Drowning
Swirling
Rocked out of an unsteady boat
Traversing the winedark sea in a leaky vessel
Shipping water faster than you can bail it out
It gives way underneath you
And it mires you
You sink
Rain coming down
And you¹re doing everything you can
To tread water
Defend yourself from the horror
Of suffocating
Being sucked under it all
In the unruly and chaotic waves
Of pain and suffering and torment
It never seems like it¹s going to happen
And you place assurance and rest easy on faith
Believing that all is fine
And then you¹re swept up and cast down
Gripped by undertow that won¹t release you.
You cry about being unhappy, discontent
Scared, lonely, miserable
Crying seas of tears and trying your hardest
To navigate them
Wondering if you are going to wash up on some distant shore
Or descend into the blue-green waves
Where you only find endless pain.
The last thing you realize
Is the irony that
The one thing that can cool the fires of Hell
Is the one thing that¹s burning in your lungs
As you reach an arm up into the sun for the last time
And disappear into darkness.