Depression

 Alligator in swamp, by Linda MacPhee-Cobb.jpg

You wake to find yourself floating face down in a pool of dark water, surrounded by hungry alligators.

Alligators, feeding off your water logged body for years, slowly chomping you to bits. As you begin to blink your eyes wearily, your semi-conscious mind jolts into a spastic birth of panic. The frozen block of fear begins to crack, chip and slide off from your soul.

Quietly…gently, a motion is willed thru your splayed fingers gliding you to safety.

The shore draws nearer. From out the corner of your eye a shadow streams by your floating torso.  A desperate hungry alligator charges at your legs, clamping its mighty jaw unto the cuff of your jeans. Its jaw locked on tight, the alligator violently jerks its massive head, and oversized reptilian form to and fro aggressively driving you back down into the murky waters.

You're swimming for your life, summoning energy from the bowels of your soul; eyes on the shore.

A voice screams from inside your head:

"Don't look back, don't look the alligator in the eyes, it feeds on your fear and attention!

It’s time to starve out the life ravaging beast! Swim!...Swim!…Swim!