Diving

We dove down
with scuba gear,
nearer to a
distant chasm than
to the brightly
blue top. We
sunk down, slowly
moaning our fears
through our bubbles
and mending the
troubles of what
we faced on
the very surface.
As we lurked
there in the
dirge silent dripping,
pressure on our
eyes and ears,
we found the
color that veers
most friends and
enemies from any
course. The dark
blue, an acidic
drowner of memories,
numbed us well
to each other,
to the ground,
to the flippers,
to our minds;
and when we
reached the hole
Neptune called cancer,
we weren’t really
ourselves anymore. We
were deeper than
we’d ever thought
we’d get to
be. We weren’t
in love with
our ideals, truly:
just knew that
this man and
woman couldn’t last
too very long
at this depth.