Jabbing needles, timeless capsules 

Toxic floods, airborne viruses

Medicines for keeping, illness drifting into space

Full command, a pilot flicks the controls and takes flight

Esteemed drop of the goggles, helmet buckled tight, a dizzying 

Breathlessness 

Earned in the climb from crowded grounds into peaceful

Empty skies relieved by a constant gush of oxygen fueling the woman as she glides

 

But now the buttons on the screen, too far above her head to press and

The smudge-filled sky glimpsed only through the window by her bed and

She cannot yank out the tube, oxygen surging on every minute

A hum that can only carry her up into dreams as she pretends to rest and

She does not recognize these lungs—debilitating restraint on her chest

Remembers the gold ring on her finger—on, and away it welcomingly took her breath 

 

Malfunctioning organs, slowly mushrooming masses 

 

Her roommate’s a sleeping soldier who still wakes up every night

Their grandkids know the tales of triumph he now tells himself like lullabies 

Whispers of danger like invisible shields, he would pluck his friends from fire,

Has seen lightening that splits lands in two, wished to sew them back together

In the dustiest dusks, a roadmap, and in nights of frozen stars, a lighter

 

But now mumblings say his reflexes are too brisk, his legs too weak

There’s a stab into his spine like a bullet, or a leech

Lightening pangs strike down his leg in an internal storm, never ceasing

Defending his homeland, the threat taking the nerves in his feet

Looks at the ring by his bed, once a strength to stand only on one knee

 

Stealthy annihilation, his enemy now invisible

Hearing mumblings by the door—that 6 a.m. dirigible 

 

“‘Til death do us part,” she says

“Observe, they’re indivisible”