Random Poetry

Don't Know

Don't know how to explain a lack of gills.
Don't know how to explain that what is tiring for others,
  maybe a bit energy expanding, a bit--just a bit of effort,
  is exhausting for her.
Don't know how to explain that is part of your day
  and all of theirs.
Don't know how to explain that this risks dragging someone
  back underwater
  and without any gills
  and sure, he can breathe anyway--but he doesn't want to
  They don't want to--not even talking
  about the burning of water in lungs
  in your lungs, in--not even talking about
  somehow having an oxygen tank and mask to match
  or, or, or the struggle for survival, little lights to help you in the dark--
Don't know how to explain that she doesn't have gills
  and is afraid of being underwater
  in the wide, wide, vastness of the ocean
  and being pulled under, down to the darkness
  down to where not even she...
  down to where she could never return from drowning.

So I don't know how to explain
that she doesn't have gills
and they are afraid of being pulled down under
by the weights at his ankles
here at the raft with them on the open sea
and the shore a dream
even though it is not far from her.
She can't breathe your air, and she doesn't have gills....
She is afraid--scared the raft won't last
long enough to take her to shore.