Free Verse

The air we Breathe

July 21, 2026

While I am yours and you are mine I exhale the breath you take As you do the same to me And when your cotton clothes slip underneath the grass Along with your soul Now emotionless I say I am yours, but are you mine? For my own air took up too much space And your lungs stay still I now rest on the soil underneath your body Trying to hold you Like a seed not able to kiss the moon It's pointless You're motionless And I must grow on top of the shadow you cast on my roots Live with your dying words But I broke upon your last breath

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Personal grief/loss grounded in concrete death imagery, some philosophical questioning about possession.

Multiple layered ideas: interdependence, death, emotional aftermath, metaphorical growth compressed densely.

Deeply melancholic, haunted by loss and despair; minimal redemptive notes throughout.

Restrained but tense; emotional intensity builds through stillness and fragmentation rather than kinetic force.

Approximately 16 lines, placing it in the 16-30 range.

Rich metaphor (seed/moon), personification (soil, shadow), extended conceit of breath exchange and botanical imagery.

Pure lyric internal voice; first-person mourning consciousness, no dramatic distance or narrative framing.

The air we Breathe

maximusprime62925

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