I Cannot Swim....

I cannot swim, i have never seen the ocean before this day,
i am crammed into a leaking vessel, with so many others,
i carry no possessions, no family, no water, no food.
too paralysed with fear to even speak, as we cannot even move in the slightest,
i shit in my pants.
We tumble on, in a darkening sea.
Every wave stops my heart.
I pray, and pray, my god does not hear me.
As the days pass, the will to live slowly seeps from my body,
my confused mind drifts back to a life long ago, i cannot think of such things, as the tears will not come, too weak.
The air itself is filled with human desperation, the merciless sun cracks our skin,
I think only of  a drink-water... water...
Others through the endless inky night, as madness takes them, slip over the side.
taken by the black waters, free at last.
A dot on the endless horizon..
I can now barely lift my salt crusted head, my eyes dimmed and glazed from sunburn.
though my heart still beats, slowly now..
We fall into the cold water..as the vessel has broken up.
screams -devoured -silence...
the flailing of the water does not leave my head...
i cannot move.
the men carry me into a van, and give me water ,a blanket..
i sit in a mud floored ripped tent.
a barbed wire fence..
this is where i will spend the remainder of my days..
I think of those who slipped into the inky night water,
 they may have chosen a better fate..
for i am 10 years old and cannot swim...