Breathe

This was inspired by a picture.

Last night I dreamt about a girl standing over the ocean. I think she may once have been bold and beautiful, but now she hides from prying eyes. I could not see her face; I think she looked like me. She stood still as the waves came, reaching higher with each surge until the waves began to lick the toes of her shoes and then her ankles. Her dress became heavy with the weight of the vast ocean. When the water reached her neck she could not swim for the weight of it and the water rose and fell into her mouth and nose. She breathed in. She drowned.

            I awoke.

I breathed.

I am not dead yet.