Swallowed Up

I’m not Jonah
And it wasn’t a whale.

But I still got swallowed up.

Not in the soft, comforting way
Of a quilt in the cold
Or clouds heavy and gray.
More like the force of an ice-cold plunge
First stealing your breath
Then leaving you numb.

No prophet, no fish.
But I sure got swallowed up.

That monster of nothingness
So unspeakably great
Came from the depths right up to my face.
And while I stood there, gazing into its eyes
Its mouth opened up, inescapably wide.
Shoulders squared, I marched to my fate.
Right into the mouth
That I realized — too late —
Would leave me alone, and broken, and sad.

But from the outside it didn’t look so bad.

Well, ’til I got swallowed up.

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