{"sf1_id":962725,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Waters","author":"Sval","words":440,"posted_at":"2016-02-07T10:30:00.000Z","tags":["Non-standard","Poem","Poetry","life","waters"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/962725-waters","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/962725","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=962725\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":" **Waters**  \n  \nEvery minute and every moment,  \nFinding ourselves cast adrift amidst a boundless ocean,  \nTreading water desperately trying to keep our heads afloat,  \nCrying out for help in silent voices lost amongst the terrifying cacophony of crowning waves threatening to crash down around our heads at any moment,  \nThankful at times nonetheless,  \nLest our fathomless despair draw near the sharks even as they already circle,  \nWeakness laid bare for them to see,  \nTo have them drag us down beneath the tumult of that surface,  \nNever to see the light again.  \n  \nSo we dare not founder,  \nBecause we hold no doubts that what lies beneath is so much worse.  \nWe know too well the darkness that we fear to let take hold.  \nBecause it would swallow us whole,  \nAnd so we tread the waters,  \nMoving ever beyond all measure of endurance we felt we had,  \nBeyond the point where sanity and exhaustion dictate that we should long ago have given up,  \nAnd surrender as if inevitable whatever of ourselves we still retained throughout the storm,  \nNever moving forwards,  \nBut at the very least we hold our own.\n\nWe never dare to believe that we could have more,  \nThat there's more than to simply be what we are in that lost moment,  \nBecause in daring to believe we have to admit that we could fail,  \nAnd the shame of our peers pressing down upon us would cast our very souls into that bottomless abyss,  \nAnd so to try would be to fail,  \nAs certain as the tempest that rages all around,  \nThe only thing left to keep us going glimmering in that faint hope that maybe,  \nJust maybe,  \nHolding our ground could ever be enough.\n\nUntil that unimaginable day ever present just around the corner lifts a sun so high,  \nSo bright,  \nThat the fathoms below us seem perhaps not quite so deep,  \nAnd then it may show us before the waves come crashing down,  \nThat if we stop treading and find ourselves brave enough to look down,  \nDaring ourselves to try so that our feet will touch the sandy bottom.  \nAnd we'll stand.  \nAnd we will rise.  \nWe'll live in that instant when we can cast our gaze above the waves.\n\n\u0026nbsp; And we'll know we did it.  \n  \nNot because they expected us to but in spite of the fact they expected us to fail,  \nBecause despite it all there was that small something deep down inside that made us keep going through and wouldn't let us quit.  \n  \nBecause we can.  \nBecause we do.  \nBecause we did.  \n  \nBecause whatever else they throw our way we know how to tread those waters.  \n  \n\n"}