Inhale...



Then open tender lips
And release the screams
From your tiny weak chest 
As they cut you for the first time 
Umbilical snipped apart 
And lay you in a strangers arms 
As he smiles proudly claiming 
" it's a boy" 

Remember those first tears 
In that white walled ER 
The first time they celebrated as you wailed
The first time they rejoiced at your pain
Remember it for it's the first of many to come

Fast forward.

Walk through life head held high
Grey clouded skies and surrounded by lies
Until you spy her across the bar
Rustic rose lips, glittering blue eyes
She shows you the beauty in life
And holds you whenever you cry 

She was beautiful then 
That day back back when she had clear flesh
And voluptuous breasts 
And teeth were pearly and straight
The last time you saw her 
She'd lost some weight and ate
Barley anything 

She had forgotten how to smile
Her supple lips had withered and wrinkled
The color had turned to a wilted brown
Then as she lay in your arms you watched...
You saw her frown shift to a smile
A peaceful glow settle unto her 
Wrinkled angelic face and it twisted
In that bittersweet expression
That she will forever hold in place
 
That's all you remember as you lay 
In the same hospital , In a different bed, on a separate day 
And the men in pastels try to stop 
The blood you shed, but fail
The world fades out and all you hear
Is the mere sound of your fainting heartbeat
On repeat and the distant beeping sound of the monitor
Keeping track of your life and peeping grimly at your death 

And you think of that first breath
In an ER laying in a strangers arms
And you understand that it wasn't about that first
And it won't be about this last
But the real meaning lies in all those in between
It's there as you lay in a different strangers arms
For the last time
That you realize this, at the same time
You understand that it is too late now to make those
Breaths that remained in between count...



Exhale.