you take a grain of salt
and multiply
until you have a float-worthy sea
impossible to cross,
and as you attempt to swim,
those around you drown,
but you won’t reach out,
you won’t bail them as they flail,
you will only look forward,
head bent,
arms pumping through water,
breath escaping from your bitter lungs
as you splash under the sun
of the tomorrow that
you take from them
with every scathing stroke.