Revive

(for Polina)

I.

Today the world is breathing in.
You give up without noticing

The necessary sigh, wreathed in
The eddies of your troubling.

Somber eyelashes, wrapped in
The sky like a contracting skin.

Your gaze cast out, and out, fixed in
A siege of all the little things.

This life you lose a thousand times
That you give up without a fight,

A tug-of-war, of you and sky -
Is one you've never justified.

II.

Today the world is breathing in
-To you - for you are drifting in

A haze, a shallow dream, Lethe in
Your heart, a merciless easing

Which all the world is answering.
Believe in your own rescue. In

Your isolation's mastering.
Tug on the air, it's listening.

Grass-shadows leap to touch your face.
This close-bound world resuscitates;

Inhale, a simple act of faith
In force and feeling. Come awake.