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breathe

Veld rises up to full height, sun stretches
up to your window to straighten the blinds,
we breathe the last quiet night of your bedroom,
breathe through the mouth in the most quiet way,
breathe the nourishing corpse of the grasses,
breathe through the mouth in the most quiet way,
breathe the resting seeds in the earth.
                                                    To stretch,
to straighten, to rise to full height, to sing,
not to whisper.
                     We breathe the last quiet night
of your bedroom, breathe through the mouth.
Spit jumps off your tongue, blood sprints from your lip.
Breathe through the mouth.
                                      Sky broadens. Breathe.
Veld opens. Breathe;
                             unbreathe

Matthew John Williams
2001

The line breathe through the mouth in the most quiet way is from Slow Song for Mark Rothko by John Taggart.