If the air
entering us,
doing the work,
that we call ‘breath’
were enough,
then asking for ‘more’
would fall out of use:
the artifacts of a tomb,
useless, touching;
the stories grownups told
of a world they wanted
to believe was true.
BEST OF THE NET 2023; Essay in THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2018;
(cited in BAE 2015, 2016, 2020, 2022); PUSHCART poetry finalist
Issue: Spring 2015 » Poetry
If the air
entering us,
doing the work,
that we call ‘breath’
were enough,
then asking for ‘more’
would fall out of use:
the artifacts of a tomb,
useless, touching;
the stories grownups told
of a world they wanted
to believe was true.
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