What Did You Think Would Happen?

He’s a drowned man –
everyone knows his lungs are full of water,
and his lips are turning all the colors of the ocean
from blue to grey in waves.
His eyes are glassy and far-away,
strained to catch sight of something the living can’t see.

If someone would just tilt his head back
just so – you wouldn’t want his marble eyes to roll out of his head – just tilt his head back so the water dribbles out of the corner of his mouth.

If someone would just breathe one breath into his lungs,
lay one compression on his traitor’s breast,
he might live again.

The trouble is,
no one wants the trouble that comes with kissing his drowned lips,
not even to save a life.
And no one wants to risk compressions
for fear that the slow poison his heart exudes
will leak through his sternum and into their palms.

He’s a drowned man.
And it looks like he’s going to stay that way.