Photo by Fabian Moller
Breathe after Libby Morel’s “To Let Metaphors Grow”
To simply breathe is not to live, but sometimes all there is to life is getting to that next breath. Sometimes, the allegory is another way to get air from a system that suffocates and buries and forgets—
Maybe I can grow a thought and spin that line into a metaphor that makes it easier to see, maybe I can sling sweet words with my molasses tongue while biting down around the lies they expect me to breathe, like air—
And I know that to simply breathe is not to live, but when I speak these words through masks will it keep me safe enough to persist through this air of deception?
Can I write poetry until I become it? Or will I die for these lines, will I be tried for these crimes, can I survive by these lies?
And I know that
to simply breathe is not to live,
but for today I might live just for that
breath in my lungs that lets me
survive, lets me breathe
life into this poetry until
it becomes me.
The Author
Anthony Mirarcki lives in Syracuse, New York, with his wife. He currently works as a carpenter and is a full-time student at Oswego State University, working towards his BA in English and Creative Writing. Anthony's work has appeared in LIT Magazine, the Great Lake Review, the 2020 anthology Poems from the Lockdown, and has earned an honorable mention in the 47th New Millennium Writing Awards.
Anthony Mirarcki, Cicero, NY