My Body

The breath comes in.
I don’t know why.
I didn’t decide,
I didn’t try.
The breath comes,
The breath goes,
And I can’t say why.

I take a breath.
I take the oxygen
That a bean plant gave,
Or a leaf of grass,
Or a phytoplankton
In an ocean far away.

I give a breath.
I give my CO2.
And a bean plant or
A leaf of grass
Or a phytoplankton
In an ocean far away,,,
Inhales. 

The bean, the grass
And the phytoplankton
Build their bodies
With my carbon.
And we become one.

The cow swallows the grass.
The herring eats the phytoplankton.
And the tuna munches the herring.
My carbon gets around.
And we become one.

Billy devours a bean burger
While Samah eats a steak.
Dont’a dines on tuna.
Watch out!
My carbon gets around.
And we become one.

I don’t know why
The breath comes and it goes.
It wasn’t mine to begin;
I didn’t own it for sure.
And the stuff of my body
Was borrowed from another.
It wasn’t. ever. mine.

We are one body, one soul
Joined together without divide.
The burning bush whispers,
“My grammar is perfect,
My child. We am.
And that is all.”