b r e a t h i n g the b o d y

my myth is this:

one god, no one knows who,

gave away the secret of breath.

as a result, women left the riverbeds,

crawling out of the water on their pale bellies.

men tumbled from dirt to form.

the two met somberly. the men were harsh to

the touch. the women were searching for grace.

and yet they stayed, finding none.

prior to the naming of things,
the hands were eminent.

then G-d gave ADAM the

burden of words to place upon

objects who were, till then,

only themselves.
gestures were no longer required,

the hands withered, distinctions failed.

we no longer look within-beneath-without words.

we have mistaken the name for the thing itself.

i am waiting for my hands to awaken,
for the wolves in my stomach

to remember that

they are wolves.

when an animal forgets the word for animal,

she will know that she is an essence-seeker.

a man slept naked in the woods.

the tree-nymphs spied and giggled:

what a strange animal! i do not know
whether he is beautiful

or merely strange.

l'histoire. l'histoire. l'histoire. l'histoire.

HOW QUICKLY THE BODY BECOMES IRRELEVANT.

HOW QUICKLY THE BODY BECOMES IRRELEVANT.
HOW QUICKLY THE BODY BECOMES IRRELEVANT.

creative ascetics forego their genitals
& worship their lungs instead.
them gawds that breathe them gawds that weep
them gawds that breathe them gawds that weep.

weeping is a broken syllable of breathing.

why are the gods in love with human beings?

how is it my body breathes on its own, effortlessly,

even as i sleep? and how did breath allow

for the trickery that is language?
case in point: lung. what's a lung?

what a strange word!

meanwhile, zephyrus keeps the wind

cold

and

bitter
so that no hyacinths may grow.

ANGEL: how do you do it? i've never done this before?

MAN: (shrugging) i don't know. it's not really something you think about. you just breathe. in and out. inhale.

ANGEL: (looking startled) in hell?

wherein isis
transformed herself
into a kite
& fanned breath

into the body

of her lover osiris.

WHAT IS AIR?

not nitrogen, nor argon, nor any other false god.

unknowable body, only the smallest part

belongs to oxygen-and-things-we-know.

the rest is nostalgia.

breath is divinely ordained.
inspire respire perspire.

i do not know whether it is beautiful
or merely strange.

the gods wept when man invented the iron lung.