Calm. That’s what everything has become. Of course, the ocean floor is indefinitely calm. Every string of muscle wades fluently through the waters. You’ve made peace with only being able to see an arm’s reach ahead. You’ve made amends with your past mistakes. You’re moving forward. Sometimes an inch a day. Sometimes for countless kilometres in the hour. Sometimes until you see light, but it’s just other people. It’s still okay.

I never expected to see you. I couldn’t even fathom the idea of you then you appeared and really, how was I supposed to react? You were a wildflower in the endless orange desert. Proof of life and beauty and your definition of love that became mine. How could you have appeared? Are we not underwater?

The puddles in the parking lot after downpour. I jumped in it without thinking I would meet the ocean floor again. I thought I was already there. Instead, I met sunlight.