Tag: air

in-out (20170205)

crow

it’s getting crowded in here again
not the people
not the obligations
but all that breathing
that sucking up the air
how will there be enough
for all of us
and by us i mean
me and the cat
who sleeps curled in my lap
making my thighs sweat
with black and white heat

the tension in my shoulders
in my neck
a block of iron
i won’t need a supplement
for that but
maybe they make little air pills
oxygen bars used to be
a mockable thing

christ, whatever modern music
they’re playing on the radio
sounds like a cross between
west side story
and a kabuki play
and it’s squeezing my lungs
like a manic accordion player

i will plug my ears
and open the window
i will share the air
sharing is caring
or so the dinosaurs said
and who am i to disagree
with the former rulers
of the earth?

the art of breathing deeply (20170111)

crow10 Comments

you take a deep breath
outside after the rain
realize how much better off
you are
not breathing that
recirculated air
from your colleagues
with their
i-swear-i’m-not-contagious
phlegmy brachial spasms

but out here
the closest people
are a couple of high school girls
a football field away
that smell like candy
when they pass
and they could give a shit
about the wheels turning
in your head

so the thought settles in
we are all stardust
not in a magical
we’re-all-special-snowflakes way
or even a
my-god-we’re-so-insignificant way
but just this just this
just
this
you could be breathing
in an atom of air
once breathed out
by abraham lincoln
hammurabi or adolph hitler

even the heavy panting of
some prehistoric saber-toothed cat
looking to make a meal out of the
hominids

we are all complicit in that
decay and triumph and violence
who needs little crackers
and plastic shot glasses
of grape juice to claim communion
we are all breathing it in
good and bad
but jesus
what are we adding to the atmosphere

cold air (201612170)

crow10 Comments

the air transforms my words
into cold clouds
cold words
fearful ones
laughter as well

i inhale
my teeth complain
–maybe the new crown
but maybe maybe maybe
this winter air
has pack us in ice
a garage freezer
keeping us fresh til spring

if my words turned into snowflakes
i would catch them in my palm
and let them melt
if your words turned into snowflakes
i would catch them on my tongue
and swallow them

Poem 20151217

crow3 Comments

the secret to breathing properly

is to imagine the lungs
expanding beyond capacity
as they fill with air

as they fill with the air
breathed out
by people you know–
the ones you work with
the ones you live with
the ones you love
the ones you hate

and those you don’t know–
the dead who breathed these same atoms
years-decades-centuries-millennia ago

fill your lungs with the air
that the dinosaurs sucked in
when the comet hurtled toward them
they all breathed out at once
a world-wide gasp

fill your lungs
and don’t let it out
let it stay inside of you
and become like smoke
in your alveoli
and only let it seep out
through your pores

Poem 20150213

crow

break all the hearts
snap them until your hands
are caked with candy dust
and the food safe inks
coat your fingers like
blood
dig out the cherry centers
of all the chocolates
evacuate the liqueur
and save it to burn in lamps
made of human flesh
and human bone
call upon st. valentine
to strike with his crozier
to break open every heaving chest
expose every swiftly beating heart
like a surgeon intent
on eradicating some diseased
greasy, necrotized mass of tissue
so the lungs can finally fill with air