“In through your nose, out through your mouth
in through your nose, out through your mouth”
I’ve always wanted to apply my years of
soccer and dance to every other issue.
If I could just breathe in the right way
when I get overwhelmed by the world
by classes, by duties, by trying to make
everyone proud then I would be able
to not be exhausted every evening,
yawning sixteen times in my 9:30am
class in the furthest lecture hall.
It was sixteen times this morning,
might be thirty during finals.
If only eight year old me and eighteen
year old me had thought to apply
my playing breathing to my everyday life.
But then again, I didn’t need that knowledge then
my body didn’t think to ask,
and I am grateful for that time
(and this time, too)
However I do want to learn breathing
as if it’s a she and a she that I can learn from
like when I learned how to braid my Barbie doll’s hair
with my best girl friends sitting next to me.
I want to ask her to teach me,
but my body doesn’t know the words yet.
How to turn playing dolls into a question of daily function,
maybe I should reverse it.
Air out through my nose, air in through my mouth?
