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Version 3
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They jumped from the helicopter: the cold, dark water
devouring their time, toes, hands,
digit by digit, their vision frame by frame,
as eighteen people got seventeen lifejackets
to divide amongst themselves.
He said he’d keep her afloat, they both did,
and the three kept sternly to the middle
as the rest bowed around them.
The waves pull higher, barely shot back by the rain,
and all hold close as the biggest waves mass…
but never come:
The director’s yell cuts through the air
and the waves roll away: the curtain of water lowering.
They swim back to the dock while
the girl singled out struggles in the still choppy waves
word balloons bubbling with water.
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Version 2
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A group jumped into the water
(seventeen lifejackets, eighteen people).
The clear leader said he'd keep her afloat,
the one on the left, the one on the right,
echoed in sincerity
draping her arms around their shoulders
keeping her eye level with the rest of the group;
them three in the middle
to hold the rest together as well.
The waves came high and they remained;
all in the same boat of an ocean ready to sink.
The storm becomes violent and drops rain and wind
The group stays close and the biggest wave looms...
but never comes.
The director's yell cuts through the air
and the waves die down and the lights come back on
and they swim back to the boat while
the girl singled out struggles in the still-choppy waves
as her speech bubbles become filled with water.
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Version 1
---
A group jumped into the water
(seventeen lifejackets, eighteen people).
The clear leader said he'd keep her afloat,
the one on the left, the one on the right,
echoed in sincerity and held her up.
The waves came high and they floated together
all in the same boat of an ocean ready to sink.
The storm becomes violent and drops rain and wind
The group stays close and the biggest wave looms...
but never comes. The director yells cut and
the waves die down and the lights come back on and
they swim back to the boat while
the girl without a lifejacket struggles in the still-choppy waves as
her speech bubbles become filled with water.
