She said let your breath move in and out on its own,
watching the abdomen rise and fall.
Let the breath own you like a great sigh.

Someone has shown you fireflies,
taken you out for a night beneath the stars.
He says, on your one-year anniversary of living together,
“I don’t regret it one bit.”

A great sigh like that.

When you close your eyes
and your whole body relaxes in gratitude
without you even thinking about it,
you lay against him on the bench,
against his chest that breathes…
that breathes…

And now you’re sitting in the chair beside his bed.
It is still early dawn,
You watch him sleep, bundled under the covers,
and, still, you can make out the rise and fall
of his chest, the rise and fall of his very life.

You sigh a great sigh of gratitude,
close your eyes, feel the movement within your body.
It is like that.
Like that.

11/25/2004

Posted on 11/25/2004
Copyright © 2024 Lisa Marie Brodsky