Asthma Song

“My lungs my lungs
where have you been roaming?”
“We’ve been chasing through brambles
“while you were sleeping:
“Down in the dirt
“there’s a tunnel, then a cavern,
“a fox runs through them
“with the wind in its teeth,
“a wren flops there
“breath-shaped & fluttering
“a cricket sings near there
“a song that sounds like coughing
“a river runs under
“part magma & part medicine
“a winded horse runs
“a gaping man reins it
“behind him on his thin horse
“a woman lean as splinter wood
“wheezes in his ear
“‘Oh my dear! Oh my dear!’
“as they turn all night
“as they turn all night
“& gallop
“ever-tighter circles
“in the coffin light.”

J.G.

This disease was the scourge of my youth.