Rock Bottom

by Emma Freeman

I’ve hit rock bottom

that deep silent place inside myself

no more floating on the surface of my life

buoyed by all of the avoidant fantasies and numbing illusions

that kept me in those shallow waters

No longer afraid of drowning

my feet now stand on those smooth, ancient stones 

carved by the soft water

my body anchored there

down down down

in my own depths

The pain and the pleasure

the longings and the delights

the joys and the grief

the love and the loneliness 

it all visits me down here

touching my soul

gently molding and shaping me

smoothing my edges

just like all of those silent stones 

I stand on now