He blew out once
                           under the sun
emptying, and emptying
                                        the blue sky air,

from his only lung,
                               he did it again for the second time,
and paused;
then breathing in deeply,
filling, and filling,
until he could hold no more sky.

He wanted, no needed, to hold his breath for a minute, NO, two,
so
he wouldn't cheat, thumb and forefinger pinched his nose closed.

his mind looked at him in the mirror,
while clearly able to see his fear,

"Failure", echoed the shower head
his one eye on the clock as the seconds slipped by
he looked from mirror to the clock, and back,
with his one good eye,

while his minds eye wrote in red lipstick on the mirror,
you will fail at this too, saying "are you already a shade of blue?"

he glanced at the clock and back to the mirror, this seems to be going
well, a thought, really nothing to fear,

it was then the voices, started, the choir of doubt,
"remember all your other failures, just let the air out"
"you'd be a fool, to
even try this in a pool"

with that forty nine seconds had elapsed and
                                            he collapsed to the outdoor shower floor,
and the last thing he saw,
before all became black,
was his convexing reflection,
in a stainless steel pipe,
                                     the winking of his one good eye.



©DWE022014
(west coast)