- die.

He strained against the current.
The chilling tide seared his eyes.
A flood of kits underfoot,

they pushed and drove him astern.

He sensed the warmth rising;
the heat of the sun or of fire.
He fell into the biting winds,

borne back toward the flames.

The others scurried in terror
from embers that blistered and scarred.
Because the cold had numbed his sight,

he saw that in life he had survived.

And in death he must...