Anchored

Here it sits Squarely in my heart Enfolded in the petals of a coronary black rose Withered and piteous A cloying weight Heavy Grief-sodden Perforated with bewilderment It rests below my collarbones Stifling each beleaguered breath Damming my apprehensive blood It clings Battening down the hatches An anchor spiraling down into a murky abyss The fathomless chamber of my soul Where it came from no one knows Not I nor god nor the ruthless demons that made it But it is within me now A hulking black shadow of despair Restless Hungry Doomed and longing to take me down with it To drag me under the swirling inky waves Until all that is left Is a pale ivory hand Fluttering helplessly above the surface Waving the white flag of surrender Before the murky weight swallows me whole Drawing me down and down and down To where the shadows sleep