“The Present is Flooding My Chest” is a poignant poem that captures the overwhelming weight of the present moment. The speaker metaphorically describes their emotions as a raging ocean, suffocating and drowning them long before the storm even arrives. The poem explores the idea of illusions and reflections, as the speaker finds solace in someone’s arms amidst the chaos, while the world burns around them. The poem questions whether those who discovered the truth about the Earth’s roundness anticipated the subsequent fall and if they understood that it is in moments of descent that one can find the strength to rise again. It encapsulates the turbulent nature of life and the resilience required to navigate through it.
The present is flooding my chest
Gurgling waves are crushing my lungs
I’ve drowned in this ocean long before this storm
Watched his raging surface a million times
The water hisses only fingertips away
My crusty lips are silenced by this mirrored illusion
As I lay in her arms, she speaks to me so softly,
As if the world around us wouldn’t burn,
Waving her tale around my trembling limps
Were they that afraid when they discovered the roundness of earth?
Did they sense that we still would fall?
That everything would lead to this moment on the edge of the abyss?
Or did they know, it is only in the moment of falling, that you can begin to rise?
Artwork: “Rip” (fragment) by: Steven DaLuz
