I awoke under water again,
I struggled and surfaced,
broke my mouth and nose through the tension at the top,
to sip the sweet air I had so long craved.
But I had been gone too long,
And everything had gone away.
Most had drifted away on the shifting tides of time.
Still, I rose up high enough to see what remained.
Of that which had remained anchored to my spot,
There was only ash and smolder and rot.
The ash choked air tasted bitter,
with the dissipated energy of life.
Yes I was alive for an instant,
just to take one look,
to rise from endless immortal dreaming,
and age one day.
Now one day and twenty lifetimes older,
sick with the fatigue of suffering and failure,
and the stench of promises unmet,
I go back to sleep and sink,
To dream again of beneath the inky blackness,
of being a better man than I ever was.
