A Wrong Turn

Learning To Breathe

Sometimes we simply can't keep up:

The wheels turn and the minutes of our hours roll

forward, memories frozen in the half-drained cup

and the recall of a smile on kissed lips.

Exhausted with the running we never planned for,

air prised from sob-seared lungs,

we might choke and trip,

helpless as today recedes to yesterday

and tomorrow looms, a journey too long

for those who crave the pitch and yaw of now.

Yet in the silence of a travelled moment,

that quiet between the here and here again,

we learn in stifled gasps,

snatched and bruising,

to measure our breath against the strides

that carry us to our end,

from hope's faint mark to life.