"The
Breath of Life"
Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
January 11, 2007 6:43 a.m. pst
We breathe,
first encompassing a cry,
somewhat belabored
and finally full,
a measure for measure
the bellows of being
the soft inhale and exhale of subsistance
So it goes
from the first year to the last,
heaving the chest with life
regulating the air
permitting our minds to cogitate and reason
allowing our hearts to love with each beat
inhale
exhale
through wakefulness
and repose
The body
eventually
degenerates,
ignoring the mind's consternation
rebuffing the heart's caring nature
and breath becomes brittle,
belaboring more,
becoming hoarse
expectorating
wheezing
winding down
So it goes
as the final curtains are drawn
and the valedictory is prepared
the breath of existence slows
with a subtle shallowness
until,
without respect for heart or mind,
the cessation arrives
and we inhale the final breath
from the surface of terra firma
Our body
is prepared
for internment in that same earth
from which we breathed so bounteously
Inhalation,
the breath of life
Exhalation, the elixer of expiration
So it goes
So it goes
So it goes
Poetry
2007
