Chrysanthemum Crenshaw
Cold Stunned
Drifting amid cloudy waters
Plastic surrounds me, as I
waver over the past and present
I don’t see the future here
Here, I can’t see anything
I am cold stunned
Waiting for human hands
To take me out of this
Some days I plead to be released from this shell,
From this hell, where I am trapped in the echo chamber of my
Barely conscious mind
Please, don’t leave me behind
I am distant from the world, here
Distant from everything. Drifting.
I am cold stunned
Shocked and shaken,
Still, but here still
hollow, but not without hope --
Don’t have me mistaken
You there, on land
I know you can help
I know you’re trying to understand
this pain that I feel,
The melancholy I have felt,
in the cold
It’s okay if you’re scared -- we all are
All my sisters and brothers
And we all just want what you want, human
A safe, warm place to grow old
You see, we are cold stunned
And we all just want to go home