B for Breathe
By Olive Senior
Pandemic Poems
June 12, 2020
It takes one's breath away: a man dying during a pandemic that
takes away one's breath, no ventilator, but one brave spectator,
recording
his last breathe, his need, "Please"
"Somebody"
taking a knee on the neck from men who from birth breathed in
tainted air, imbibed a foul history, burning crosses, still smoldering
"I can't breathe"
like the hot breathe of anger consuming the cities
that inhaled this before
this white heat
this burning sensation in the throats of
the numerous ones held down and
"Mama"
"Mama"
"I can't"
Come on, George Floyd, breathe in the timeless rhythm of Mother
Earth waiting for you, for all of her lost children, for justice
"I'm through"
"I'm through"
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