Until now, I'd lost all hope

Though my thoughts kept spinning

In childlike pirouettes

Everything else

Everyone else

had instantaneous instructions to flee.

And beneath the surface

Of a thick yet translucent blue

I neither fought nor succumbed

To the weight

From the pressure

And my two-handed grip was steadfast

But not strong enough to pull

My skeleton upwards.

It encased me.

The blue.

Like a thick skin

And when it stretched, its grip

Was stronger.

But now sometimes

On the darkest days

I can smile

If only for a moment.