Poem

Breathe

Between cases I looked out the great highway-facing windows

To the see my swaying grasses again

In the swale by the overpass.

But there was a stillness instead.

The wind had died.

The world was out of breath.

All this churn and struggle,

The constant motion to and fro.

Lone leafless tree erupting from the ground like a claw

Clutching the exceptional nothingness.

You want to fill its branches with blossoms and nests.

I place a mirror before my face to see it fog.

I check to see if my chest still rises and falls.

It rises and falls,

Yes, it rises and falls.

11/18/19