no coral reef

it is no more than a small misery not to eat
for hours and to stay calm while the thirst
rises within you but that is not the worst
it seems like each hour is a new defeat
you wait and wait and the results that greet
your eyes provoke no great outburst
and you think in the night this is the first
of these exercises over time there's more
and each involves the same humiliation
the weakness that the mind seems to imprison
you hope in vain for that now longed-for shore
but in the meanwhile you fear discorporation
but later you'll feel better when arisen