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’s most recent book is Safe Rooms (Wesleyan, 2026). Her book Versed won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She is professor emerita at UC San Diego and currently lives in the Pacific Northwest.