Breathe

I've got a cold, creating a tightness in my chest that's making it hard to breathe. It reminded me of a poem I wrote in college. It actually got published in a student literary magazine. I was on the committee to select submissions. They told us we could submit our own work but had to do it under a pseudonym. I think I used Marie something. Wish I could remember. Everyone voted for their favorite and my simple 21-word poem got the most votes.

When I was in high school I remember giving my first church talk -- a 3 minute youth talk. I wrote out what I wanted to say. I felt good about it. I wasn't nervous speaking to our congregation...until I got up there. I couldn't breathe. Suddenly I became nervous--more so because I couldn't breathe. So I started reading faster and faster. I don't think I took a breath the whole time. Of course nobody understood a word I had to say since I was bulldozing along as fast as I could.

It took a lot of talks in public to figure out how to calm down and breathe. So here's the poem:

Yesterday
I saw him.
And it was hard to breathe.
Just like when I have to give a talk in church.