naporhymo #14 -- Hoagland

after "Still Life" by Tony Hoagland:

Fathomed Life

The men have it wrong, said Mandy;
the goal isn’t an executive limo or a six-digit pay stub
                                                or a surgically tweaked trophy wife;
the goal is an exhale
and it follows an inhale
            limning the physical body

                     a simple in-and-out
bringing oxygen into
                                         and out of present lungs
                  centering consciousness
                       repeating the act

And she sat cross-legged, like a heeled dog
who waits patiently for indefinite reasons,

—and, breathing deep
and letting it out and in and out,

she stayed there, quietly, on her mat.