EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE

Spiritus is a Latin word referring to breath or breathing, and is the origin of the English word spirit. I find this connection between breath and the spirit an interesting one and the interweaving of meaning prompted the following poem.

SPIRITUS

The playing cards fall one by one,

each turning card a single breath:

an Ace of Spades, the card of death

lurks in the deck. A coin is spun

and while it spins, life hastens on:

our fortune hangs on heads or tails.

Death cuts us down but life prevails:

our genes alive in daughter, son.

So breath moves forward, like a breeze,

through autumn, winter, into spring:

a snow bird’s feathers on a wing

uplifted over endless seas.