Riptide

By Hector Vance

I once got caught in a riptide

My feet yanked out from under me,

salt water stinging my eyes, my hands dragging across the sand.

I once got caught in a riptide,

A question like, “Do you love me?’ was a disgusting profanity, a curl of water that pulled my view from the shore.

I once got caught in a riptide

It was only after it violently wrenched my heart in half that I understood it was called a RIPtide.

I once got caught in a riptide.

The halls were crevasses and the classrooms were caves, and yet, although it seemed like there would be handholds- the only person holding my hand was the sick grasp of death.

I once got caught in a riptide.

I speak for that screaming moment when they bowed their heads, and my head went stiff , my eyes stuck open, I couldn’t do anything but glare, and I prefer to think that was never glaring at god,  but when I was young I learned that god was ubiquitous so if I scream at the sky, or sing to my friend in the ground,  god hears every word, every thought.

It’s a riptide

Riptide.

I once got caught in a riptide.

I once got caught in a riptide.

Riptide.

I once got caught in a riptide.

I once got caught in a riptide.

We all came into this world screaming.