Knot Watching

Knots in the rope hold together the slippery wood of this raft I am on, they look green with rot, I see them slipping apart as I try to get to each one as quick as I can, retying them as fast as they can work loose.
 
My knees slip on the wood as it is now far too rough to attempt standing.
 
Salt water splashes up into my mouth and eyes and has turned my hair white and fragile for it has been so long now fighting to stay afloat in this storm.
 
Cracks in the wood appear and open and creak and scream while being twisted by wave after wave as my grips strength is losing its battle.
 
I search the horizon for land or calm or deaths end which is surely now the destined result for he who once when young and strong pushed this raft out into the water, sure and confident that everything would hold together for as long as the journey lasted. Youth’s head was held high, fear was never a factor as I was disillusioned with the self.
 
Over night and long day’s I stayed afloat with an ease that all other rafts around me could not muster, as bodies began floating by and calls for help I forced myself to ignore, rang out across the endless sea, I needed all of my focus for knot watching and rot checking.
 
I just hadn't expected land to not arrive for this long or the storm to rage to such heights and powers.