Trapped

by Renee Williams


When I was a little girl, I slipped in the pool,
and slid under the water, grasping the sides,

trying not to let the water overtake me, panicking,
no one around, and I couldn’t breathe,

I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t breathe.
I feel that way now when others try to hold me

under their thumbs, under their desires, under their wishes,
leaving me stranded, struggling, pulling myself from the depths,

and trying so hard not to let all of that water, salty, sickening,
fill my lungs and overtake me.

Would it be easier not to fight it, to just let it all happen
to go with the flow and sink, down and down and down?

I probably shouldn’t admit it.
Sometimes I want to do that, too.


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Renee Williams is a retired English instructor, who has written for Of Rust and Glass, Alien Buddha Press and Fevers of the Mind.