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1,2,3,4

Keep counting

It’s heavy, and the air is hot

1,2,3,4

Keep counting

I hear the screaming, and all the lies.

Come on girl, keep counting

1,2,3,4 snap snap

My hands are trembling I can’t quite see

But 1,2,3,4. Keep counting. You’ve gotta breathe.

1
2
3
4

That’s how many breaths you need
Count to 4. Count to 4.
Just. Keep. Counting.
This is how I handle my panic attacks. Counting to 4, and snapping on cue. Focuses the mind to some thing else. Sooner or later I’m not panicking. I’m counting, and I can breathe again.
Elemenohp Jul 2019
Drip. Drip. Shiver.
Draw an arrow from the quiver.
Inhale, exhale, hold.

Pause.

Wait.

Incriminate.

Set the fire.
Watch this disintegrate.

Breathe again.
Anastasia Jul 2019
I often dream
Of your arms
Rocking me to sleep
Soft eyes
Like blankets
Warming over me
My heart
Beats fast
But I
Breathe slow
Your body
next to me
Souls
Tender kisses
Fingers
On my skin
Love
Is my reason
For living

c.b.❤
Lydia Jun 2019
Have you ever tried to talk yourself out of a panic attack?
It’s not easy
It doesn’t really work
your heart still races
and your blood still feels like
it’s flying through your veins
your vision still blurs
and your thoughts don’t make sense
your breath comes in short waves
before you know it
you’re already in it
so just try to lay back and feel it
Haruharu Jun 2019
The summer air still smells like you.
Gentle breezes touch my skin with memories of you.

Empty passenger seat,
I wonder how you are.

Your old workplace.
Red light.

Like clockwork you appear..

In the peryphery I see you laughing with a cigarette in your hand.
I hear the voice I used to love, and I smile.

You're the same, yet different.
Thinner than I remember, more handsome than I wished to..

Light turns green.

Nostalgic with an aching heart, I have to leave you behind.

Shadows from the sun cast reflections of us.

Open wide road.

Through an open window I breathe our memories.

I whisper to the gentle breeze, hoping you'll hear it.

"Dias de luta, dias de gloria."
t Jun 2019
no more speaking
i know you love to drown me in your words
but hush
breathe me in
let the silence fill the room like oxygen
embrace the nothing
let my lips tell silent stories
hold still and you may understand
belbere Jun 2019
one
breathe
you may not realise it
but you’ve stepped into new lands
and life is different here
you are different here

you’d thought the sun
had kissed you before
but it did not love you
like it did this place
the people here had
felt its arms wrapped
around their bodies
for generations,
its light imprinted in
their skin like melanin,
the same light
you’d seen shine
from your mother’s hands

you’d thought the sun
had kissed you once before
but you were different,
your light was dimmer,
harder to recognise
and even the sun wasn’t
sure you were its kin,
had to look twice
before it realised
your blood but you
remained a stranger
all the same

two
the way you talk is wrong
your words too delicate
your voice too soft
your speech without music

you’d thought your tongue
was universal, had been
both understood and mis before,
but you were the cub of a lioness
and didn’t know how to roar,
no pride would take
you in when you
mewled like a kitten
and no sunlight shone
from your skin

you’d thought your tongue
was no different to
your mother’s, but hers
never worked the same
when you spoke it,
never quite connected
to its audience, so
you stopped trying,
turned to the moon instead
and gave it your confession
the only way you knew how,
it told you you spoke just fine

three
you think somewhere else
things will be different
you don’t remember
it has always been this way

your family never once
pointed out the intricacies
of your branches to you,
why you matched neither
your father’s roots nor your
mother’s veins, but had blossomed
something different, something new,
and why that would ever matter,
your family never thought
about these things, never
talked about such things,
they just wanted you
to speak plain

your family never once
explained how home would
be new to you, how home
wouldn’t really be like home
after all, because home didn’t
welcome you like it should have,
didn’t greet you right, hold you
tight in its arms and make you feel
like you belonged, because you
were different, and it didn’t
recognise you for a moment
or two

one
breathe
you may not realise it
but you’ve stepped into new lands
and life is different here
and you are different here
one to start a collection of self-reflection, perhaps, if it comes willingly
V Jun 2019
Some days,
I do nothing but remember to breathe;
And some days,
That is enough.
...
Trying to hold on.
shamamama Jun 2019
feeling the current
tugging at my sleeves
rocking me from my stasis
turning me into liquid
when i thought
the ground was firm beneath me,
heels feel the crumbling
quaking beneath,
just letting the flow
breathe me into
this next song,
new key,
new rhythm,
new tones,
timber through me
just letting the song merge with my state of being and take me
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