POEM STARTER
Submitted by Maranda Quinn
The Burden of Memory
Write a poem that could have this as its title.
Treading Water
You weigh on me
Like an anchor,
Halting me
From moving on,
From escaping into
Open waters.
You dictate my life,
A riptide
Guiding me,
Gentle yet forceful,
Toward the endless depths
With high tides and whirlpools
Ready to drag me under.
You latch on
And pull me down
Wanting to make
A matching tragedy of me,
Wanting fiercely
To give your misery
At the bottom of the ocean
Some company.
I wade and wade,
Treading water
Day in and day out.
Day in and day out
You try to drown me
In the same tears
You cried back then.
But on I swim,
Not very strong,
But persistent.
I escape you,
Just as sleep and happiness
Escape me,
But I live with a constant fear
Of the day I can’t.
The day when
Your arms coil around
And snap me under,
When my head dips below the water
And my arms are too weak
To fight to the surface,
When I gasp for air
And the salty tears
Fill the emptiness
In my shallow lungs,
When my body falls
And the rays of sunlight
Cascading through the waves
Shrink from view.
Consciousness,
Life,
Slips further away
Into the tides.
My fear nears with
Every passing moment.
The currents are quickening,
And the pressure is building.
The waves are towering taller,
And the water is always rising.
I can’t continue like this forever,
And I know
I can only outrun you
For so long.