here I fall, these

shackles bind my wrists, my ankles and

my neck too

and this heavy chain to hold me together

as if my limbs will fly apart

shall I hold my breath? I’ll hold it for now

watch the sun shrink to a tiny star and the rough current

almost tumbles me about so I cannot see it

but the weight of the chain keeps me steady

so my fall is straight and true. I remember the first

time I saw this ocean, and

before that how I ran and hunted with my brothers and

heard stories of the edge of the world

How we laughed my brothers and I!

To imagine a mass of water as large as

the grassy savanna where we lived, what stories!

My brothers will not know that I have found it and soon

I will touch the bottom of this ocean

as deep as the sky.

Now my lungs burn and the light is gone and my body is numb.

I take a deep breath of water and succumb.