Breathing History

Breathing history,
is the man I gave my change to this morning
start with the drunken man
the man, drunk, start with the corner

reach past this moment,
the ghosts living in his fingers
dry as leaves
a basket of brown snakes empty and holding
open, the highway a river

this concrete can you smell it?
soil still damp under bones of frost,
as light travels away from us
always

history read backwards into the coming light
history moving each breath, a page
holding open
the next, the man is drunk
the man is
the man is
alive, in me the pain
we carry,                                                                                                                                   breath  
the taking,
the giving.




For Simon Ortiz