You dipped your toes
Into the darkness
As though to test if it was cold
And I knew right when
You shivered
You were more scared than you had told
I wrote my words into a life ring
Something to keep
Your word afloat
But against the strength of your nightmare
They were a soggy paper boat
I don't know what the blackness told you
What wonderous things
It planned to give you
But I watched as the light died in your eyes
Along with your will to live
I screamed your name to pierce the silence
But you were
Too long gone to hear
Caught somewhere between being noticed
And wanting to disappear
You once said you were scared
Of the darkness
And that you'd never learnt to swim
But with its promises pumped
Through your veins
You held your breath and jumped right in.