You dipped your toes into the darkness,
As though to test if it was cold,
And I knew right when you shivered,
You were more scared than you had told,
I wrote my words into a life ring,
Something to keep your world afloat,
But against the strength of your nightmare,
They were a soggy paper boat,
I don't know what the blackness told you,
What wondrous things it planned to give,
But I watched as the light died in your eyes,
Along with your will to live,
I screamed your name to pierce the silence,
But you were too long gone to hear,
Caught somewhere between being noticed,
And wanting to disappear,
You once said you were scared of darkness,
And that you'd never learnt to swim,
But with its promises pumped through your veins,
You held your breath and jumped right in.
~e.h