Tuesday, August 20, 2002

The thing that got me

The thing that got me
about being up there
wasn’t the forest
where the trees seemed to shrink
and retreat from each other
it wasn’t the clouds
that just towered above me
and pummeled the sky
till they shattered with lightning
the thing that I noticed
was something invisible
I would be breathing
the ordinary course
of my human behavior
and the air would go in
to my hungering lungs
but it just wouldn’t fill them
there was nothing to breathe in it
My alveoles clutching
for stuff that was missing
it’s like I was smothering
there in the coolness
of fresh mountain air
that I thought just might kill me
but then I got better
the breathing came back to me
Now I’m at sealevel
breathing is thoughtless
just something that happens
but up there I thought on it
maybe that’s better
anyway it is the thing I remember