Experiments in breathing

I have decided to breathe

Wait – what’s that shadow on your face?

Am crazy or what? Is that the rhetoric that I see you chew and swallow?

After all, who doesn’t breathe?



That is a misconception and I shall expound

Yes – hold your horses will you?

When was the last time you felt your breath?

Yes - When you knew you were breathing?



The breathing in of life and breathing out of crap

Or carbon-dioxide, to suit senses marinated in sophistication

Yes, so as I was saying- when was last time you felt alive?

Felt a gush of air through your nose revive and refresh?



When was it last that you were not gulping mouthfuls-

Of existence dealt in doses of day ends and weekends?

When was it last that you leapt out of your bed-

And not feel like a ton of bricks on your head?



Indulge me a little more in this experiment on breathing and answer-



Do you nudge the night to call it a day?

Or do you run through the day, hunted like a prey?

Do you have moments to spare, jingling in your pocket?

Or do you beg for them like you lost them to a paycheck?



On a scale of one to ten, are you more dead or alive?

On a scale of one to five – are you exceedingly anxious or supremely content?

On a scale of zero to seven – how often do you stand and stare?

On a scale of zero to nine- how often do you do things without a care?



I put those to make my experiments in breathing, quantitatively sound

For you will appreciate when I say, and I say this without qualms

That you can do zilch without counting and then calculating

Reasoning, rationalizing, weighing, measuring and then erring anyways



And so coming to square one, or back to basics if you like

For what can be more basic than breathing

I have decided to exercise this very fundamental right

More rightful than rights to equality or fraternity



The right to breathe and the right to live

The right to pause and rewind

The right to wonder and pursue

The right to be and just be.