Exhale
for my goddaughter Axelle at 26
Each time you breathe in
the Earth’s air,
the life-giving air,
you breathe out
a cocktail of
nitrogen, oxygen,
argon, carbon dioxide.
But also,
and more vitally,
more profoundly,
the exhalation,
the Axellation,
of your prana,
of your animated
and animating spirit.
A rush
of aliveness
that joins
the Great Wind
of all outspiriting breaths;
the ether, elixir
of every living thing,
every other being.
That joins and streams
its essence,
invisible presence,
through the world.
Colin Goedecke
Westerly-by-the-Sea, Rhode Island
26 February 2024
