The roar of bubbles in your ears as you dive, shattering that fragile barrier between life and death itself
The burst of faraway cheers as you fight up through the still silence, dimly muted and brightly cold
The splash-rush-blur-sing of water as it twines through your fingers, as it pours past your ears, in time with the blood flowing through your veins
The fierce bright spark of want-pain-need-drive to win so hot you can feel it in the very core of your bones
The grin-laugh-shout-cry of victory so close you can taste the bitter chlorine of its wake
Your limbs are white hot lead and the burn-ache-fire-pleasure of it pulses through you faster than your heart can beat and it hurts so so good
The grit of your teeth as you r e a c h because there is more left in you buried deep in a place you’ve only ever prayed you had
And you want to quit you want to stop you want to breathe but you can’t
And you touch and you should feel grounded but you aren’t
Because in that moment you are floating somewhere between heaven and earth
Half numb from pain and half blinded from exhaustion
And fully, blazingly, alive
In that moment, you are more than you ever knew you could be
and
you
breathe