Seasick

Lost little sailor...

The waterlogged piece of drift wood

The shattered remains of a ship

Came to a stop

Forcing its way into the sand

Lining the beach

 

Sun burnt and cracked

The knuckles gripping the board

Pried themselves free

And gently pressed the palms beneath

Submerged them into the cool mud

 

He lets out a hysterical laugh

As he examines the area around him

Then let’s himself collapse on the beach

 

He had traveled across the seas of pain

The ship set sail fully loaded with goods and crew

But the hungry waters and angry skies

Shattered the ship and scattered the crew

 

The images of this journey

Overwhelm him as he is blacked out

Unconscious on this desolate stretch of sand

 

Replaying the sounds of his shipmates

Being swept away into the current

The sound of his vessel snapping

Being torn to pieces by the cruel ocean

 

In this state he relives the countless days

Drifting towards and endless blue horizon

 

Delirium consumed him during this time

Clutching the splintered board

Hallucinations bombarded him

Irrationality consumed his mind

 

Adrift in an ocean

And not a drop to drink

 

Succumbing to the madness

He was swallowed into the hysteria

Rushing the endless days

Down an ever darkening

Labyrinth

 

The repetitive rotation

The circling sun

Only added to his delirium

Switching places every time he opened his eyes

Or disappearing only moments after they had closed

He never bothered to track the days

 

He accepted

That this was only going to add

To the suffering

His suffering

 

The last black ringed memory he possessed

The one before the unconscious awakening

And the cooling beach

 

Was the simple laughter of a gull

And the horrid realization

That he may be clutching a makeshift

Tombstone

 

He remembered the gull

And the soft caress of the plank

Cool from the lapping water

Then nothing

 

He laughs hysterically at the sky

Fists clenched

Spittle spraying

Eyes mad

 

He was alive

 

The battered form

Pried himself from the sand

And began to look in all directions

 

Far off in the distance

There was a small pillar of smoke

 

So our survivor abandons the last remnant of his ship

And begins to stagger into the jungle

Between him

This possible civilization

05/13/2012

Author's Note

0735 am

Reviews

[...]

Wow! That's quite a journey of transition and transformation. "Our survivor" ultimately evolves into a hero despite his unpleasant tryst with hysteria. One can only hope that there are more such survivors in the human race -- so many that mass hysteria can be transcended.