Asleep In The River Poem by Gemma Cail

If you let yourself hang,
Just long enough,
Under the water—
It's not too difficult...

You wait.
Letting it tangle your hair
Ripple along your skin,
Until you are covered with

Green river moss.
And you can't feel the tug on
Your lungs anymore-
Until your skin melts away

Into the water,
And you become,
Just a current that flows,
Just a ripple of cool liquid

That goes
On and on
For a million miles
Of stream, and river, and ocean

Of lake, and pond, and marsh.

Just stay,
Until you forget how to float,
How to breathe, how to paddle,
Until you sink like a stone,

Deep to the shadow-water,
Silt streaks your skin,
Fish, silver fish,
They nip at your lips, at your hands...

Until you are nothing more than a worn water stone,
Polished smooth.