Image: Nina Bisognani
Breath of Life
By, Barbara Diamond
We all need to breathe.
Creation requires oxygen.
Yahweh is the sound of breath
Going in and out. Hear it?
Breathing is both God and life.
So why do we say,
“It takes my breath away,”
Or “She was breathless with joy”
Without seeing suffocation
Or ventilators puffing?
Virus sufferers see machines
As doorways to death. Police kill
Suspects with chokeholds. Children
Breathe dirty air and then die
As asthma takes their breath away.
“Breathe on me breath of God,”
And on my sisters and brothers
Who are dying for lack of breath.
May I please enter and join God’s
Love for the actual breathless?
Please forgive us, dearest God,
Your heedless, greedy human race,
Who steal habitats and unleash germs,
Who hire cops to prop up systems,
Who make smog along with stuff.
We are helpless without you.
We try to honor you and
Every living plant and creature.
Please let our recent horrors
Wake us up to breathe out love!