Thursday, May 9, 2024

Labour

 

Death has arrived into your breathing:

you labouring to stay alive.

I’ve never been so aware of the lungs as bellows;

how basic the mechanism is

now that all the thinking is done.

Straining for oxygen all these hours;

we standing by your bed parsing each breathe,

the minute modulations in the sounds,

you hauling oxygen from the room to your blood.

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