A Toast, to Us

Atlantis

Your love was like poison. Every word you spoke plunged me deeper into the water, until I completely forgot how to breathe.
And I took you in when I was at my most vulnerable.

I had never felt a love where my lungs would burn, and my heart would skip beats. Your mouth was laced with cyanide, and every kiss was deadly.

I became entranced by the world beneath the water, one where dying never felt as graceful as this. Maybe it was the temporary high I got from the water filling the inside of my ears, or the colors I saw as I sunk to the bottom of the ocean floor.

Euphoria was dancing through my veins, while you held me down with your tentacles. The purple around my neck was your show of affection, or so you said. It was a sign that I was yours to keep, a treasure locked away from the world.

One so dear, that you'd have to kill if discovered.

You didn't hesitate, when the divers found my body, covered in algae and a coral reef growing from my body, you didn't hesitate to tear me to shreds.

I was buried so deep inside your tank full of lies, that I didn't realize my own worth.

I was not a treasure meant to be hidden from the world. I was one meant to be seen, as a symbol of hope and dreams.

I am worth much more than the tank you tried to drown my in, with your crappy little goldfish and hermit crabs.

The wheels in my head began to turn, I felt the warmth rushing back into my body,
as I broke free from Davy Jones' locker.

My body felt light. It began to float.

I passed through the myriad of colors you had shown me before, as I slipped from your grasp. I realized that all those colors, were really just the fake plants you kept. The illusion wore off, like a bandaid being ripped off after having worn it like your own skin.

The clothes that once dragged me to the depths of your mind gently pushed me towards the surface, sunlight having touched my skin in what felt like an eternity.

Warmth began to embrace me, and I let it.
I saw the beauty in the world above, and I broke through the surface.

The waves crashed against the shore, and the foam felt like gold between my fingers.

I had been drowning for millennia, until I resurfaced.

Atlantis has returned,
And it will not be sunk by likes of you.