Movie

There is a hole that swallowed up my life,
that sucked me down
like quicksand;

like the man in that old Tarzan movie:
finally hands,
and, soon, not even that.

Past grasp of hands or hoping
no aid tossed:
no rope or vine for grasping;

no need for resuscitation:
a body drowned,
lungs filled with sand and mud.

It turns out sand was needed
to ballast down the breathing that was mine:
no crime as yet committed,

but undermined
in negation my mother’s wishes
that I be saved.