Thanatos

From the hill where we live,
We noticed the sea changing,
Growing darker by the day,
And then realised it was rising.

Was it the tide? we asked,
But no-one knew,
And the sea continued to darken,
And continued to rise.

Then one morning,
Opening the front door,
We found the sea
Lapping at our doorstep,

It had covered all the houses,
The roads and the trees.
From our doorstep to the horizon
Stretched the sea.

It was like it had always been there
And we had not noticed it before,
It’s surface smooth and unbroken,
Dark as night.

Nothing was to be heard,
No seagull’s shrieking.
People’s cries for help
Must have been swallowed by the night.

There was only the dark sea,
And silence.
And we, standing at its edge,
Waiting.