pluto | poetry ✓

dying,

...dying

the oxygen which once was mine
escapes the grasp of my weary lungs
and drifts up in bubbles
away from the cocooning water

my lungs burn with need
with want for life-saving molecules
things that it cannot have

switches are flipped to off
my arms are weighed down
with the weight of my sins
my legs cease their treading
pulled down by heavy chains
my heartbeat slows
to a slow stumble
and my brain becomes fuzzy
like an out of focus camera

there's only seconds
before i'm labeled dead
when my brain is starved from oxygen
and my body responds no more

and so i give up hope
leaving the weights and chains
and sink down to the bottom
waiting for the burden of life
to be taken off my shoulders

three....

the burning cools down

two...

my heartbeat is dull in my chest

one...

and there it is

i taste death on my taste buds
bitter with a tangy sweetness
lolling over and under my tongue
it costs my mouth with old and new

there's a figure
shadowy and wispy
flickering in and out of my vision
whispering to join him
join him, or i'll forever be lost

before i spill out some words
that'll bind me to this wispy man
a hand breaks his shadows into two

the hand reaches towards me
without the sluggish feeling i'm a subject to
and pulls me out

out, out, out
out of the cocooning water
away from the burning
away from the stumbling heartbeat
away from the shadowy, wispy man

and for a priceless moment
i can breathe, my lungs blessed
the water no long soaks my bones
and my chains rub my ankles no more

and for a brief second
the colors in the world are brighter
and the air has a sort of crispness

and i feel... alive
and i know that i have been...