The Undertow

Text:

© Grathy
The Undertow
Vocals and lyrics by Mary McGrath
Copyright 10/3/21-All rights reserved

Your loud quiet is deafening. I know it shouts when you’re alone, your tears trying to purge what’s inside of you, the angry rivers flooding downstream on your dry parched cheeks.

No one is listening, but I hear you. I see your cloudy eyes as you attempt to stay above it all, as you try to be ok with people who can’t understand, who don’t want to know.

But I know. There’s a deadly lake around you, with unknown muck below.

You try to stand tall, but its hungry fists are always grabbing at your limbs. You try to escape, but the undertow is thick, relentless. You try to shake your body free, but it won’t let go. It still sits there below you, a patient intruder, the sticky ooze just waiting for you to stumble.

The tide abates for a while, and perhaps you think that you’re ok. But the patient water is just quiet. Below its brackish face, it lies, laughing, marking time, waiting for you to falter, just a little bit, so it can have its way.