Treading Water Poem by Erin Cowart

I have been treading the water of the universe
For 15,845 days
Head slightly above the water
Arms and legs in a frantic dance for survival

You can tell yourself that at some point you will stop
There must be a stopping point, right?
The time to float seems like a luxury you have earned
But for today, day 15,845 you will keep treading

If you feel the water begin to creep up
If the universe seems bound to rise against you
You may want to flail about like a fish on the sand
But believe me, it will be useless

Better to sink into the water
Let the blackholes devour you
And come to find that what you always needed
Was the sinking

Sink in to the deep
Fall in to the vastness of the void
Stare with terror at the tide of destruction
Embrace your fate

And then

Emerge to find that what you thought was an ending
Is really a beginning
That the strange new shore upon which you find yourself
Is a paradise for the aching limbs that struggled for so long

You can float here
In the undulating waves
Of the new world
In a universe you found in your destruction