The Biophysics of Breathing

Let us render clear,
The vital items
Of our lives,
Not the things of pleasure,
But those things without which
We may find ourselves expired,

Or at least impaired

Beyond
Those greater things that are
The sustenance of life,
There is a list that can be made,
Food,
Water,
Air,
The last is mostly critical for
Oxygen,
What if we were to lose
That critical component,
The oxygen of our life,
Not the O2,
That mixes with the nitrogen
We breathe,
But that very something that
Sustains us,
That very life line
That we each might have,
Some of us,

Are more tightly
Interwoven with it than others,
For some it is

Like unto the umbilical cord,
As critical as that to which they cleaved
Within the womb,
Without it they wither,
What is it?
For some it is a place,
For some a drug,
For some,
A person,
For all,
A vital element,
Defined only by them,
The level of criticality unknown,
Until it is lost
In a moment,
Wherein they are,
Perhaps for the first time,
Truly working without a net,
Or even a sense of direction,

And they begin slow suffocation,

Not of the lungs,

But a different kind of drowning,

That of the soul.