Suffocated by inclement water pressing
Up...down? side to side? right side up upside down
Where is up?
Breathing in hydrogen hydrogen oxygen
Need oxygen

They twist turn bend
Closer and farther
Clawing aimless helpless pointless
They want out.
Where is out?

Someone please save them
Pull them up and out and forward
Bring them away from this torture house
Set them free

They tick tock on your glass prison’s wall
Run nails on your chalkboard while you fake sleep
They are the kettle’s whistle on the front burner
Let them boil, let them screech
Why can’t you take the lid off?
Set them free

They wiggle toward the sunlight
Nightlight? crepuscular light
Where’s the lightsaber? lifesaver
Pull them toward the sky

They scratch, burn, freeze, wail
“Please?”
Nobody to save them, help them
You just let them die.

They watch your worries, doubts, and insecurities
build sand castles to bury them
While they whisper-beg, “Please?”

Your lack of courage, lack of strength, timidity
keep these susurration-secret words of power
entombed miles below reach
you buried them before they ever got the chance to fly
haul them up, pull them out, set them free

Or just sit, cry, and watch them die.