{"id":5,"date":"2020-04-22T15:11:43","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T19:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/covid-narratives\/?p=5"},"modified":"2020-04-30T13:11:03","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T17:11:03","slug":"never-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/covid-narratives\/poems\/never-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Poem by Amy Bolotin<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Never again <\/span>
\nWill I breathe<\/span>
\nThe air without<\/span>
\nTasting the fear<\/span>
\nOf what incubates within it<\/span><\/p>\n

Never again\u00a0<\/span>
\nWill I soak<\/span>
\nThe sun without\u00a0<\/span>
\nDoubting the truth<\/span>
\nOf its heat<\/span><\/p>\n

Never again\u00a0<\/span>
\nWill I touch\u00a0<\/span>
\nA loved one without\u00a0<\/span>
\nBegging for more\u00a0<\/span>
\nor<\/span>
\nStaying still to sneak<\/span>
\nSmall bits of hope and comfort<\/span>
\nNostalgic for more reckless touches<\/span><\/p>\n

I cannot bear<\/span>
\nNot to share air<\/span>
\nNot to breathe the breath<\/span>
\nOf the ones around me<\/span><\/p>\n

I cannot bear\u00a0<\/span>
\nTo fear the air\u00a0<\/span>
\nWhich is life itself\u00a0<\/span>
\nWhich gives me life<\/span>
\nWhich fills my lungs\u00a0<\/span>
\nFeeds my soul<\/span><\/p>\n

I breathe in\u00a0<\/span>
\nI breathe out<\/span>
\nDeep<\/span>
\nI breathe in<\/span>
\nI breathe out<\/span>
\nWide<\/span>
\nI breathe in\u00a0<\/span>
\nI breathe out<\/span>
\nSlow<\/span>
\nAir moves in\u00a0<\/span>
\nFills the cracks and crevices<\/span>
\nIt goes up<\/span>
\nIt goes down<\/span>
\nIt goes outward\u00a0<\/span>
\nAnd inward<\/span>
\nAnd it heals\u00a0<\/span>
\nIt soothes<\/span>
\nIt comforts<\/span>
\nIt inspires<\/span>
\nIt sets me back to right<\/span>
\nAlways<\/span><\/p>\n

Outside air\u00a0<\/span>
\nInside air\u00a0<\/span>
\nSuck it swallow it gulp it\u00a0<\/span>
\nInhale inspire<\/span>
\nExhale expire\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Will you ever again<\/span>
\nCome near enough to\u00a0<\/span>
\nShare the air\u00a0<\/span>
\nTo breathe the breath I breathe<\/span>
\nLike droplets of life we give\u00a0<\/span>
\nAway\u00a0<\/span>
\nAnd then take in\u00a0<\/span>
\nAgain<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Poem by Amy Bolotin…<\/p>\n

Continue ReadingNever Again<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,3],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","tag-amy-bolotin","tag-poem","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/covid-narratives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/covid-narratives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/covid-narratives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/covid-narratives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/covid-narratives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/covid-narratives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":397,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/covid-narratives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions\/397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/covid-narratives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/covid-narratives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/covid-narratives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}