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the pebbles at the beach’s bottom drown & are rebreathed
each tide like the human body’s slipping sleepward & jolting back
& back: a rest that’s never true & a wake that’s all gasp
& release. we don’t remember
how to catch breath & shape it bubble-soft & trailing
into something to care for, to ear after
instead, airbound, we gulp quickly giddy at the glottal
teeth tense stifling in breath
as lungs inflate exhale
a flight like a gull on the updraft is this exhilaration?
suck & gasp lips pressed to windburst
the gall of it
trapping what’s invisible into mouthshape tongue swaddled tight
against billow & blessing & we don’t remember
we don’t remember
our primary tasks as the pebbles sink into sand & seaswoon
we hang our jaws open by the molar in wait
the air here hangs
just as lightless in our caves & cavities tiding itself
into cheeks & out it doesn’t want to be swallowed
& it doesn’t want to be let go
& it fills our mouths with its cacophonies
echo & original sound
sometimes
we kick the pebbles at the beach’s bottom but only
when sun’s alchemy
turns them silvered & slivering we’re afraid
of letting them slip into nightness & we’re afraid of them
bleakdamp sifting speech across our surfaces
they too closely resemble
our own clammy souls slowly
overcome
with tide
it’s brittle in our mouths
this dusty light
our cheeks
full of pebble
& aglow