Crashing Waves, Receding Waves, Crashing Waves

Crashing Waves, Receding Waves, Crashing Waves

It comes back
It always comes back
The strife
The struggle
The heartbreaking reality
That all happiness is temporary

All sadness
All grief
All of everything
That pumps through the heart
Eventually ends with the last rhythm's beat

We have those
Who love us
Truly love us
And they say
We'll make it
And when we do
We'll come back stronger
Come back better
Come back greater than before

We'll come back!
Come back!
Come back!

But what we hide so well,
What our desperation
Enables us to pass off
As will power unflinching,
Is our greatest secret

We are
In fact
Broken

Pieces left behind
In torment's ocean
Pieces we can't get back

The pieces that do come back
Sometimes don't fit
But our desperation stabs them in
To this new base
This new shape
Hardly recognized as more
Than a bloody mess in the mirror

The frustration wells up
At the pointlessness upon the surface
At the feeling of being unjustified in sadness
At the feeling that we are too weak
To keep this wave
From being the last one

The one that drags this weakling
Or falsified will power
Down into the depths

The darkest depths
The deepest depths
Depths eternal

I am not the only one
Who can only swim for so long

I wish this shared struggle
Were indeed shared
But the truth is it isn't.
The truth is that while we are not alone
In this struggle
We must each swim alone

Swim alone
Sink alone
Drown alone

In an ocean filled
With weak and weakened swimmers

So smile and brace
For the next wave

Stand for yourself
Be grateful for the loved ones who stand with
Even though you must leave them at the shoreline

You must swim alone
But for what it's worth
You--we--have people

People hoping with all they have to hope with

That we'll come back

And are ready to bloody their hands

As we pick up what's left of us

Piled up on the shoreline

Broken piles

Drowning in desperation
Spawned by fear, despite acceptance

Despite accepting
That the end is the most inevitable
Of all inevitabilities

We are still afraid
Afraid that we will be no stronger
In the next life
Then we were in this one

And that while the end is inevitable
Its absolution is not

The end is accepted for what it is
And feared for the exact same reason

Its potential is greater
That that of our lives...

I would continue,

But my muscles grow weak,
My mind grows weary,
And the tide is coming in.