My lungs fill like a perfect balloon

Lifting my body in the water

Just like those squeaky rubber things

I’d blow up for birthdays

Bouncing like a kitten

In the way of everything

Playing till silly gets tiresome

In the hospital rooms

They’d rise to the ceiling

Deflated they’d bob

On the bedpost

Strings tangling with tubing

Get stuck under wheelchairs

I’d kick them out

Soon as I could

It’s effortless the way they work

The lungs expand

And gas up the blood

With this element

That lifts the body

Breathes life into the heart

And makes the water what it is

But there on the hospital bed

It’s not working for him

The balloon is collapsing

The stomach heaving

The lungs flop like a fish

On land

The mouth flays like a door

Torn off it’s hinge

I breath

Thoughts tag thoughts around

just nothing

then stop

On the kids popping balloons

The man man dying

And I catch myself holding my breath

Feel the pressure

Then the bottom of a sigh

Lifting from inside

How good it is

How simple