Drowning and Diving

The order to vacate comes
when the building starts 
to slowly fill with water.
Hallways begin to swell—
a kind of edema. 

But unlike a patient near the end 
of life, a building can't be set 
on its side; can't be propped up 
by pillows so gravity might help 
re-distribute the surplus of fluid.  

We know it doesn't take
a lot of water to cause drowning.
One can drown in four inches
of bathwater after inhaling 
even a quarter cup of water.
 
A fish out of water spasms 
and suffocates. There's 
something called dry 
drowning, in which water 
never even reaches the lungs. 

Not everything that moves in water 
can breathe under the surface; 
even the professional mermaid can only
last five minutes before she has to haul
her glittering monofin out of the pool.