Drowning Girl

If I'd been a better swimmer
When the flood passed o'er my head,
And the torrents tossed above me
As I sank down with the dead,

I'd have never needed rescued
By a swimmer strong as you,
Who has swum in deeper water
Than have I attempted to,

For I knew I was a goner
When I started first to sink,
But I never knew the water went
Much deeper than I think.

For in drowning there's no bottom,
But the deeper deeper goes,
The abyss has room for more descent,
And it's bottom no one knows

But you. You touched the bottom,
Before you rose again.
You reached me near the middle still
With half left to ascend,

But with no breath left to succor,
And with no life left to live,
There in the belly of that lake
You had one thing to give:

Your hand, though you were dying,
Knew that I was dying, too,
And to die is better, hand in hand,
Than it all alone is to.

And there we died together,
In the middle of the sea
Where the poets go to die alone,
But find those there who still be.