the past floods in I close my eyes and sink, dissolving into everywhere, drowning in time and time again. predators circle, dead-eyed and inevitable. I try to ride their waves, but I am ridden, breached, defenceless. a breaker of a man, and another - I go under. I splutter and blink tongue in my throat I choke, heaving on saltwater. I cry and try to fight, this drowning bird’s forgotten flight and I’m not when I thought I was. the shiver has swum, the tide subsided, and he says just get over it. he says the past is behind me, he did not come here to watch me drown, or to see me swim with sharks. but the low tide laps at my feet and out there they are still circling.
