In

that first breath lasts all day
I’ll go gray, cream, taupe, tan, raw umber
burnt orange, orange, red-into-grass-green
turquoise tourniquet
latched to a sensation of well-deserved energy
algebraic divination methodology
trapped in a pile of library books
the forsaken montane mythology
distressed and compressed
the first breath takes it in
and holds it

[RK, 5/29/21]