when I tell you
something in excitement
and you breathe
in that way
and purse your lips…
Breathing
I’m breathing allergens,
it’s making my nose run
and my eyes water…
The moment before you fall
the moment you hear the ice crack
beneath your feet
that moment, you’d better…
brick upon brick
blood as the mortar
violent way to found
a city….
What is normal?
What is breath…
when you’re jogging
and you’re moving
smoothly, or at least
okay, until you stop,
and then you can’t
get started again…
You stand next to me. I don’t look up. My eyes do not exist in the same plane of reality. You are blind to the thing I see. If I explained it to you, or tried, you would ask if I was talking to ghosts. This is not a ghost, but it does haunt me…
I am eons deep
in oxygen
and I am drowning…
a slow slog through tasks
pull your rain boot from the mud
it suctions — zoop, pop!
she held herself still
while she breathed
the air stalled in her throat
