transmutation 9/9/25

I found myself in the water with my heart outside of my chest,

just floating there like a buoy

you’d think I’d be scared, but I’m mostly just lonely.

I had hoped they would return for me.

I waited until my hair started to fall out

Strand by strand

until each one had tangled itself around the corals

swaying like snakes among the stone.

Next to go were my eyelashes.

They floated away

along with most of the rest of me,

eventually.

The waiting waned into emptiness

that trickled for an apathetic eternity of endless fish

that come and go in waves, all hiding from the sharks

who want to consume us.

While I, in the deepest depths of my own personal despair,

hold on only to the hope that my hair will grow back.

The isolation made me someone completely different.

The only thing still plaguing me is perhaps my vanity.

I’ve been through a metamorphosis down here,

but my heart,

is still hanging on by a thread, following me around like a target.

A shiny red juicy lure sure to be bitten.