My Life of Quicksand
I first stepped into the quicksand
When I was only twenty-one
My girlfriend missed two cycles
My college years were not yet done
I doubled up on my courses
While working late into the night
And started sinking into the quagmire
Cuddling my daughter nice and tight
I sunk into it even deeper
When two sons then came along
A house with a mortgage
Credit cards to pay the throng
My job became an anchor
Adding weight to my sinking ship
But instead of calling out for help
I simply bit my bleeding lip
Muck was up to my neck
When college tuitions came pouring in
But I knew, for my children,
To do less would be a sin
My loved ones standing near me
Didn’t seem to notice me disappear
Suffocating in the deluge
Was my most horrific fear
When my head was finally covered
And my world went dark as night
I heard sounds of a helicopter
I heard beeping and saw a light
The doctor who woke me up
Said, “You had a heart attack
You must climb out of the quicksand
If you want your life to come back”
Then I learned to see the joy
In what I thought was ballast weight
I learned to share some of my burdens
And not carry them all upon my plate
I learned how to reach my hand out
To other hands that were always there
And I left my life of quicksand
Burying within it all despair
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