We Are Not Fish Food

When you feel yourself drowning
Know you have the strength to swim
That the duck weeds and piranhas
Have no teeth and satin skin

That the very weight you're shackled to
Was bound by your own hand
It's tricky: if you spin your elbow
  and do a little dance...

In the water that's so murking dark
Chains sink from your hot wrist
Though you wished the fight was done
The struggle here begins

There is the kicking and the pushing
White knuckled grasp on breath
Hear the games, the pains of living
     you're here, why don't you rest?

But in this spit slick underworld
You are the fiercest beast
Ripping up the shadowed tongues
Unbinding your beliefs

And as you walk among them
The ones who seem okay
Every body has a gill
     that gives their fight away.

Sometimes water looks inviting
You'll say, "I'll just take a swim."
Take your breaststrokes carefully
And count your breaths within

When you feel the shadows call
And their lies bait you to sink
When you feel yourself drowning
              Know you have the strength to swim.