This arrived in my mailbox, from Joy Gordon, Toronto Canada.
B for Breathe is a poem by Olive Senior. It is part of Transmission, CBC Books' original writing series reflecting on life during COVID-19. Read more works from Transmission here.
Olive Senior has been sharing poems on Twitter throughout the pandemic in a series called Pandemic Poetry. You can check those out at @olivesenior. B for Breathe was first published as part of Pandemic Poems.
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B for Breathe
It takes one's breath away: a man dying during a pandemic that
takes away one's breath, no ventilator but one brave spectator,
recording
his last breath, his need please
somebody
taking the knee on the neck from men who from birth breathed in
tainted air, imbibed a foul history, burning crosses
still smouldering
i can't breathe
like the hot breath of anger consuming the cities
that inhaled this before
this white heat this
burning sensation in the throats of
the numerous ones held down and
mama
mama
i can't
Come on, George Floyd, breathe in the timeless rhythm of Mother
Earth waiting for you, for all her lost children, for justice
I'm through
I'm through