First breath, best breath. I don’t mean anything by that.
Shale over shale. I concentrate on acts
to keep from repeating words in my head.
I sit up and copy them in bed.
“So, so glad I’m not doing that.
So glad I’m not the one doing that.”
These waves slide over gray shingled sand.
One covers another as the first draws back.
Best breath, first breath.
Rae ArmantroutRae Armantrout is a professor of writing and literature at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of several books of poetry, most recently Money Shot (2011) and Versed (2009), winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Photo credit: AP Photo/Denis Poroy