Oxygen

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BobBradshaw
Posts: 2675
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Oxygen

#1 Post by BobBradshaw » 27 Apr 2021, 08:41

Oxygen


I want to kiss you as if our tongues
were lovers wrestling each other
on a mattress in the landing
of their new apartment.

For decades
we barely kept our heads
above water; yet there was no thought
of leaving the other behind.

Each year pushed us
closer to our limits
of endurance,
money like a leaking oxygen tank…
Will it run out we kept asking
before we do?

Old, the thought of kissing
as if the world was ending
vanished long ago.
More often we’re more
like small siblings, holding hands
as we walk the park
or cross a street.

Still, there are times
I want to kiss you passionately,
to share what kisses
we have left in this world

like deep divers
sharing one oxygen tank
between themselves--the world
of everyone else far away
and us in no hurry
to re-enter it.

Kenneth2816
Posts: 1619
Joined: 01 Jun 2008, 09:17

Re: Oxygen

#2 Post by Kenneth2816 » 27 Apr 2021, 15:49

I would be able to tell this was a Bob poem anywhere

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Billy
Posts: 1379
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 10:56

Re: Oxygen

#3 Post by Billy » 27 Apr 2021, 21:35

Just love the final stanza, the whole poem: the siblings, the first stanza.

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2675
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Oxygen

#4 Post by BobBradshaw » 29 Apr 2021, 00:38

Thanks, Billy

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