B for Breathe

B for Breathe

by Olive Senior

In B for Breathe from her collection Pandemic Poems, Olive Senior meditates on the death of George Floyd.

Pandemic Poems: First Wave by Olive Senior
86 pages

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

Reprinted with permission from the author. From Pandemic Poems: The First Wave published by Olive Senior, February 2021. Distributed by Ingram Books Available at major booksellers.