The membrane holds me for a cursory kiss. With ease I emerge to a lung-cleansing zephyr.
the stream takes my hand and slips me out of my chains.
Weight lifting, lifting, lifting still,
final sight I could have had.
and you were the best
Te voglio bene,
to the sludge below Venice.
who tethered my body
Amico,
to visit him.
his pleas for me
Father,
birth amidst decay.
her parables of
Mother,
sour and sweet.
its flavors,
Life, I remember
that separates the world from me.
ferrying passengers above the glistening membrane
Chains clamp my torso onto sunken brown sludge. Wooden pods loom above me,