My sweet friends,
be careful with your breath.

If the mind is filled with universes
and the smallest microbe,
can you doubt the force of all of that
lasering into speech?

One in-breath is still Alaha Ruha,
The Spirit;
with the out-breath that speech rides,
the smallness of ourselves tags along
with the excesses our body no longer needs.

The out-breath is one of our kidneys,
really.

Even that shaky recognition about what is
in
and
out,
has started wars.

I like the startled surprise of the in-breath—
a prayer all its own.
The choice of the out-breath’s message,
well...
that I must leave to your
loving
discernment.

KBN