Breezes fresh off the ocean
Cleanse my breath
Bringing with them a faint whiff of pineapple
Hints of cinnamon and spices
Only an echo of killing field turmoil
A guilty sniff of garbage gyre
If there is radioactive particulate matter still lingering from Fukushima
I don’t want to know
I’d prefer to think that evaporation and condensation
Across thousands of miles of ocean
Has restored innocence to the wind
But this wind doesn’t blush anymore
Having been stripped and torn asunder too many times to tell
I share each breath with all of humanity
All creatures
All living things
Breathing in
Breathing out
Recycling this invisible presence
Neither clean nor original but vital
So I fill my lungs with the belches and farts
Of a busy world
I breathe the last heavy sigh of nameless saints
Swallow the screams of the terrified
Smell fragrances of the forgotten rotting
Take in the essence of timeless past
Formless future
Exhaling into tomorrow
Invisibly connected to forever
David Trudel © 2013
Beautifully written. I especially loved “this wind doesn’t blush anymore.” Very moving.
Thank you so much Josepha. I like that line too.