by TANJA KOVAC
My skin slides sideways with every exhalation
I touch the folk-soul, I am every nation
My breath is the breath, the companion of the start
The lung’s first lover, the friend of the heart.
My tip, toes, tune to a twilight sonata
I inhale the music of the mystic and martyr
My breath is the breath of the Big Bang Boom
The thrum fills my belly like a drum in the womb.
My mind mulls mute in an underwater thrall
I swoon in the room, I collapse every wall.
My breath is the breath of the frog, fish, flea
I dissolve into froth on a midnight sea.