1. In through the nostrils —
deep, deep, deep, deep.
Exhale through the mouth.
Repeat forty times.
Hold #40 for a twenty-count
by thousandths.
Breathe out by the mouth —out,
out, out, out. Hold it for a twenty count.
Catch your breath.

2. Head down, breathe in through nostrils
as you rotate your head to the left
stopping at the shoulder — one.
Rotate to your back —two.
Rotate to your right shoulder — three.
Rotate to your chest, exhale by mouth — four.
Reverse to the right shoulder.
Inhale through nostrils — 5.
To back — 6.
To left shoulder — 7.
To chest — exhale through mouth —8.
Repeat to a count of 100.

3. In through the nostrils
for a four-count by thousandths.
Hold for a normal four count.
Breathe out through the mouth –
one thousand one, one thousand two,
one thousand three, one thousand four.
Repeat ten times.

4. In through the nostrils, Jesus Christ Son of God.
Out through the mouth, Savior.
Repeat ten times.

5. Repeat # 1.

6. In through the nostrils for a four-count.
Exhale through the mouth — Om.
Repeat ten times.

7. Repeat # 1 for twenty breaths.

8. Breathing Toward Peace

There was a Dutch gal from Holland, Michigan
who wanted to swim the Big Lake and back again.
She headed across to Wisconsin’s Racine
but with nose in the air changed course and was seen,
having a brat and a beer in old Sheboygan.

Apophatically,
he denied nothing
thus everything,
as he entered the darkness
so totally beyond even dim
and, therein, didn’t discover any light.
But in
that apophatic state,
It discovered him
much to his de-light,
the place without light
wherein
he was
enlightened.

*idea from a meditation by Matthew Fox

Looking out the window, 
     he sees cyclists go by.
          It will be a couple more 
weeks before he can 
     climb on his bike. He 
          wistfully would like 
to be those two riding 
     by, but then he sees 
          how one isn’t in the 
right posture or the 
     correct gear and he 
          loses interest. Then 
he sees a blur in 
     lycra fly by, cut-
          ting smoothly through 
the wind and he sits 
     in admiration and 
          winces with jealousy.

He has projected all his fears
on others through the years.

He’s the little boy who cried wolf
and turned out to be a bad imitation of Adolf.

All is done with smoke and mirrors
and his projections have caused tears,

death and destruction from this sick man
whose only foundation is flimflam.

But the world is catching on
to the Incredible Shrinking Don.

Unlike his claim that the virus would vanish,
he the American people will soon banish

and let the Southern District of New York
finally in his mouth put a permanent cork

and all his vulture tweets so obscene
will never more be read or seen.

*paraphrase of The Incredible Shrinking President used in USA Today opinion piece

Let this time go down, down, down.
Let the next time go up, up, up.
Let us save the Republic now.
Let us be saved from all that is corrupt.

It is so horribly bad out there
that even eye contact is a threat.
In those unmasked, he sees rage and fear
and for the future he does fret.

But we need to watch each other’s back
And say over and over, but not to offend,
Yes! We need an Asian/Black
to help us move forward, not go back again.

The Kleptocrat/maniac in the House —
will lie and lie and lie over and over again
but will run and cower like a mouse —
the message of cowardly insanity to send

to those who watch the news
and seek a balanced approach —
those who have been touched by the muse,
meditate and find justice to broach,

they are the one’s who
somehow wisdom knew.
Let us be those, too.

The text notifier vibrated
and I was notified that
my phone may be leaking
secrets. Oh, my. I don’t
remember telling any
secrets over the phone
but if I had, I believe that
it would be a concern
only in the very least.
Better for secrets to leak
than to have other leaks
of which I can think leak —
especially now that I am
beyond my physical peak.

He said, “I probably didn’t model the best cop-
ing skills and, in all honesty, where were you
with that? How did we have the gall to birth
two kids when we were and always remained so
childish with each other which then, of course,
the kids would take in in the technicolor, wide-
screen theatre called home? Seriously, is it
any wonder that one of them eventually said, ‘We
really look good to the outside world,’ and the
other one just stared? If looks could kill. We
should have had this conversation years and years
ago, but, then again, I think we started it a
gazillion times only to wind up in an argument,
loud shouts and kids ducking under chairs. And
now you’re gone and I’m here mumbling ‘Too soon
old, too late smart,’ and if you were here, I
don’t know that the end of the effort would be
any different than it ever was and I still can’t
stop telling you how much I love you.”

The pond fish play water polo
with a fallen Rose of Sharon flower.
They push and pull,
nibble and bite as the folded,
pink flower moves closer
and closer to the skimmer.
Who will be the winner?
In it goes.
Which team won?
Nobody knows. No fin raised in victory;
no high fives;
the pond fish go on with their pond fish lives.
Wait. They all take a victory lap
around the pond.
No competition. It’s D’Artagnan and
Musketeers all — all for one and
one for all
when the pond fish play ball.

The writer wrote, “ineluctable
as the tide,” and the man re-
membered when he and his wife
paddled their kayaks along the
water and under the bridge divid-
ing the ocean from the bay and
found the paddling instantly
easier. They paddled and paddled
with great pleasure and then the
midwesterners remembered the
tide and the current. Spinning
their kayaks around they paddled
and paddled but kept going back-
ward like a Buster Keaton silent
movie in reverse or a Michael
Jackson backward foot shuffle,
out and out into the ocean.
They strained and huffed and
puffed and seeing the bridge
thought they would blow the
bridge down and finally made it
back under that bridge floating
exhausted in the bay. The writer
wrote that grief was “ineluctable
as the tide.” That day they beat
grief and high-fived a great, if
terrifying ride, but they would
never again forget the ineluctable
tide.