WDAT

I learned to float where shattered shadows stay
to dye the dark in shades that look like day
my lungs take in the words I can’t relay
each crest that breaks just pulls me further away
the current hums of quiet endings near
a velvet call I’m never meant to hear
no signal cuts across this salted dome
I am the tide that never travels home


I smile like sunlight dancing on the bay
while undertow keeps pulling me beneath
I fake the calm, I make it look like day
but salt keeps gathering behind my teeth
they see the glow, they never see the slide
the quiet war I bury with the tide
who deserve a trophy for this play
for drowning slow with air still beneath
I wear a calm that never shows a seam
a mirrored mask rehearsed in every scene
but far below I fracture in between
the swell erases every trace I’ve been
each rising wave suggests I disappear
a distant roar too deep for any ear
I draw my maps in lines that won’t stay true
no soul can trace the course I’m slipping through

The pressure builds where light forgets to fall
a hollow trench that never answers call
the stormfront carves my name along the wall
then drags it back as if I’m none at all
I wear the warmth like armor on my skin
while tempests slowly tighten from within
they’d praise the role that never dares to break
a perfect lie no tremor could awake

I smile like sunlight dancing on the bay
while undertow keeps pulling me beneath
I fake the calm, I make it look like day
but salt keeps gathering behind my teeth
they see the glow, they never see the slide
the quiet war I bury with the tide
who deserve a trophy for this play
for drowning slow with air still in my teeth

there is a storm that never reaches sky
it only circles somewhere far below
if I gave it language it would rise
but silence keeps it perfectly contained
and everyone applauds the quiet surface