"Drowning Song" by Jason M. Thornberry

Dog paddling down the years, treading water, your drowning song echoes up the moonlit road to where I lie in bed, wondering if you’re all right. Wondering what you want from me. As years press on, your song keeps me awake. When I sleep, your song invades my dreams. In my dreams, I see you shake the water, curse the world, and sing—to me. As years press on, I learn you do not sing for my help but for my hand. To seize my hand and pull me into the water. To make me drown alongside you. To share your misery. You sing. You sing for me to join you. You sing. You never stop.

Jason M. Thornberry is a disabled writer whose work appears in World Literature Today, Los Angeles Review of Books, Grub Street, FOLIO Literary Journal, Maryland Literary Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Welter, and elsewhere. He’s seeking a home for his first novel. Jason lives in Seattle with his wife and dog.