SWIMMING THROUGH EARTH

There was a loud
silence.

Fred was dead.

Busy swimming through
earth.

He was doing the front crawl.

Which was surprising as he
couldn't swim.

Our Jim could swim.
But me and Fred - never.

But here he was
swimming through earth.

With only half a face.
The other half was just blood.

His one eye
wide open.

As if eternity
had appeared in front of him.

When the bomb blew
the world to smithereens

I believed I was dead
too.

But I wasn't.
More's the pity.

What was death like
you ask.

it was like...
It was like. . .

nothing.
Being nothing.

Then it was like
my mother's perfume.

And there she was
recreated by lilacs..

A perfume version of her
carved out of the air.

I swear.
Everything went white.

It was as if the world
had been erased.

Then the earthandtreesandfields
rushed back into my eyes.

As if there were in a hurry
and could only exist in

my seeing
them.

That's when I seen our Fred
already half buried

swimming through the earth
as if he thought he could have

made it
the poor wee ******.

A nicer lad there
wasn't.

I would have cried
if there were tears.

But there were
no tears.

No tears.

I was furious I had
survived.

Then I thought
just casual like.

"This should get me back
to Blighty like!"

When they found me
("Hey this one's still alive!")

I was trying to swim
through the earth.

"Hang on Fred!" I said.
"I'm coming.