Tammy Snyder

Breath
 
Resist. Relax.
Resist. Relax.
Inflate. Deflate.
Feel the roundness of the thoracic cage come into being as the outside pushes inside,
      seeking the easiest way out of a flesh and bone chalice.
Can you sense the tickle of cool air at the threshold of the nares?
Trace its flow to the back of the throat, into trachea, lungs and bronchi?
Little pillows of air contained in alveoli,
Smooth sacs, silky as a noble woman's purse.
A shift, a sigh,
Exchange begins anew.
Further down the line can you sense oxygen pumped to cells through capillaries?
Oxygen sates the tips of toes, ears and fingers.
Quiet the ever-busy brain, clouded with thoughts.
Allow them to pass while carbon dioxide leaves after the oxygen has been absorbed.
Pink lips, pink skin: perfusion.
No dam to immersion in a sea of oxygen and one is coral pink, soft and at ease.
No struggle until age and experience reveal the changes in the body's function.
Breath, the parentheses of life on the outside, begun and done.
The first breath, surprise!
       The final breath, resolution.

Tammy Snyder writes poetry and fiction and is currently working on her first novel in the genre of Paranormal Fantasy. She has previously been published in Junction Magazine. She lives in Ripton, Vermont with her husband and beloved familiars, Waffle and Major.