It’s as easy as breathing, I say

Taking big, bold, billowing breaths

If you let yourself go

In out, in out

(No nasty innuendo please…)

I could do it on a high wire

A pile of plates on my head

Or jumping off a cliff

Elastic band round my ankle

The endomorphins flow

As I blow, blow, blow

I’m a whale

Snorting the salt

On a clear blue sea

Or a dragon,

Flying high

On my own steam

Breathing

 

Then I listen to you wheeze

My consumptive child

Painful and laboured

Lungs racked

Or maybe wrecked

Spitting blood

Where I spit fire

 

I breathe onto the frosted pane

Hoping to see a way through

But the vapour vanishes

And everything’s opaque

Maybe I have a gift

And it’s not so easy

This breathing thing