Your breath is
only learning its way
eager, sporadic, chasing
the world to catch up
trying on for size
this motion
of living
and I, beside you
am listening
praying the silence does not last
so that I know you
are keeping pace
still, because you
have just begun
and I refuse to form
the thought of otherwise
where you are not
there, I mean, here
with me
for the rest
of my breath.
A. Thu Ngo is an educator and writer living in San Diego, CA. Born in Danang, Vietnam, she grew up in the Garden State and trained as a social anthropologist.
