Air - Trudie Shannon

Without the fluttering of the leaves
Or the scudding of the clouds.
Without the wave tops scattered away
From the body of the sea
Or random plastic bags taking flight
Flapping like voiceless birds.
Without wires stretched taut across the countryside
Adjoining metal giant to metal giant
Thrumming communication
Or the whistling under eaves, beneath doors
Through invisible cracks and fissures.
Without the rise and fall of diaphragms
Or cold calling on the inside of our mouths
We would not know the wind.
And what is the wind but air
That stuff of life itself.

We inhale air, we exhale air.
We inhale air, we exhale air.
And in breathing thus,
We live.

Trudie Shannon