The reaper has already tried to steal my soul,
Once during my birth, I was a miracle baby.
Then it tried again and almost succeeded
When I was four, I fell off a dock into the ocean.
My green frog rubber boots weighed me down.
I still have a vivid memory of what I experienced.
It felt like I was slowly drifting down,
Down into the darkness.
And it was as if the whole world became muted.
Like as if the sound had been switched off.
It also felt like I was numb.
The cold water, the pressure, I couldn't feel.
At all.
The only thing that worked was my vision.
Bright light of the sun slowly began to fade
As I felt like I was suffocating.
Felt like I was being engulfed by a blanket of darkness.
Then I felt sort of a violent, rushing feeling.
Upwards.
Then my ability of hearing kicked back into gear.
Murmured, blurred, faint voices.
Then the color kicked in again.
Fuzzy and overexposed color. One large face, two small ones.
A vibrant blue above them. The sky.
A violent red. The dock's paint job.
The rushing feeling?
My dad bringing me up to the surface.
One would think I'm terrified of the sea.
Strangely, enough I love it. I do not fear the end of my life.
Not after I've been so close to the kiss of death twice.
---
Fabien Belcourt - 12/2006
