Life carries me

at times heavy as a weighted sack

at times light as flung flotsam

as I dig puny muscles

in crumbling sand

 

All my yesterdays

sail past, temporary

excursions, guided

tours, the ferry pilot

a grinning skeleton

 

Now I peer into

an underwater cinema

a rerun of an old movie

images float, seaweed

fragments, zeros

descending numerals

 

Too late

I’m falling into a

whirlpool, dragging

sucking

implacable;

unable to breathe

I scream out

against the current

 

C’mon he says

drying me off

it’s not so bad

have another try

 

And out I pop