All I Can See Is Your Breathing
Today is a petulant world with eyes rising
To sit in the morning and sip coffee
and read and weep without tears and
push my fingers into my temple
and blow out a breath with a pop
as the clock ticks one more minute
in a winter rain that leans against
the first frost of garden destruction
where it’s too cold to go out
and too cold to stay in. Luckily —
there is a child wrapped in blankets
before the fire radiating potential
into the clutching human condition;
my skin folds into a fist, pounds the table
in rhythmic applause because today
is a petulant world with eyes rising
to realize: those are sails on a ship,
not clouds, with a tiller to wrestle
and knotted rope to drop in the wake,
cannons to position, an ensign flag,
and plenty of tar to fill up all the holes.
©️ Trapper Markelz 2022
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