BREATHING

Food can be spared for weeks, water for days,
But breath for barely a minute. The vacant viscera
Complain for a while, then bravely acquiesce.
The underhydrated body maybe stays

Alive, but soon it slips into a swoon
That’s gently moribund. But block the breath,
And in seconds our frames are fragged and facing death.
The eating, drinking rhythm is from the womb.

Delivery makes us creatures of the air.
A breathing-in requires a breathing-out.
Five billion pairs of lungs must lift without
A pause. And if they fail, we know somewhere

A brand-new wailing pair begins to thrive.
Buddy leaves and Abigail arrives.

(163, Dec 8, 1994)

->