The Plunge

~posted as free flow poetry on my tumblr blog~

Some days,

She climbed the ladder and

Padded to the end of the

Diving board,

Bounced to her toes

And a did a swan dive

Into

The Melancholy Ocean.

She swam through the

Swamp of Empathy,

Where every rescue animal

That needed a home,

And every child

That needed a hope,

Every man who ever felt less than,

And every woman who

Ever feared,

Poked leaks through

Her wetsuit and flooded in,

And the weight of the world

Almost bore her to the bottom.

She sliced through the Sea of the Sad,

What am I

Where am I

Why am I

Who am I

Whisked in alternating ears

With every breaststroke,

And barely broke the surface

To gasp in a gulp of air.

She dove under,

Kicked towards the bottom,

The dreck and the dark,

The muddy cloud,

Kicking up dirt,

The Sea Floor of all that was,

Those that had given up,

Dreams that had petered out

And sunk,

Books unwritten

Songs unsung

Dancers who remained stationary.

She faces the waves and the swells,

With tearful equanimity,

Because she always knows,

That once she clambers

Onto the far bank,

The pains and the hurts and the ideas,

Rush gushing from a

Fountain of Gratitude

And the sky is bluer,

The trees are greener,

The laughter brighter and

The love more fierce,

Because she can feel both sides of the coin.