Swim Until You Can’t See Land

A salute at the threshold of the North Sea, of my mind
And a nod to the boredom that drove me here to face the tide and swim

Dip a toe in the ocean oh how it hardens and it numbs
The rest of me is a version of man built to collapse and crumb
If I hadn’t come now to the coast to disappear
I may have died in the landslide of rocks and hopes and fears

Swim until you can’t see land
Are you a man, are you a bag of sand?

Up to my knees now, do I wade? Do I dive?
The sea has seen my like before though, it’s my first and perhaps last time
Let’s call me a baptist, call this a drowning of the past
She is there on the shoreline throwing stones at my back

Swim until you can’t see land
Are you a man, are you a bag of sand?

Now the water is taller than me and the land is a marker line
All I am is a body adrift in water, salt and sky

Swim until you can’t see land
Are you a man, are you a bag of sand?