Letting Go is not Giving Up

She sat still in the current.
Rolling tides, bouncing waves.
Her face never changing, yet,
I feel pain in her gaze.

Her eyes red from the salt.
The panes to her soul discoloured.
Pain hiding in the depths of her tears,
A beaconing call deafens my ears.

Water drowning out my cries,
So,
Towards her I set sail.
Winds howling as they pass.
Men cowering, the waves thrash.

The false rhyming of her cries
Shaking in the water's icy grip.
The tease of her rescue ship
Anchoring her into stillness.

Her silence disturbing,
Her body frigid
And still,
I reach for her hand.

Like ice in touch and blue as the sea
i look at her red eyes staring back at me.
Her hands surprise me with such a grip
I feel my feet leave the deck with a slip.

The water greeting my eyes in salty stings
Only darkness to greet my sight
I see her sinking further
Down into the blackened night.

Her hand holding me under the surface
As I sink with her.
My lungs scream for air
While my mind fills with distant despair.

Finally I feel a release
My body back above the waves.
Wondering how many people she had taken,
Down into their watery graves.

I couldn't tell who let go first,
Whether it was me or her.
All I know for certain is she was no island
She was certainly an iceberg.