Love like Drowning

My heart is full

A spring, overflowing

Bottomless

Clear

Leaking

Spilling warmth

Sugared, scalding

I soak inside, my frigid skin thawing

A soft fog, boiling into absence

My mind is full

A puddle, quivering

Grimy

Stagnant

Alluring

Slick with excuses

Sediment, not sentiment

It reflects a face I don’t recognize,

or maybe I never smiled like that

You hover, too close

I crave the absence of touch

Vines curl inside me, whispering comfort

Splitting ribs to sow affection

The poison of exposure

Burns my skin

I erupt

I scream and claw at my blistered skin

Begging the burn to erase me

Racing blindly,

I chase collapse

There

Water

Diving headlong,

I don’t look

The water cradles me

Sharply

It beckoned,

but it was wearing Death’s robes

Hope

never pierced

like this

I fold into silence

Relief?

No.

Rupture.

I mistook surface tension for depth.