It's Still Life

Always Look on the Bright Side of a Hill

I’ve never been able to walk up this hill
without pausing midway to catch my breath.

He knows that at roughly the same spot 
I’ll stop and pretend to look at some weed

with its blossom hinged off toward sunlight
as he waits for me to wheeze in its perfume.

A breath isn’t something you learn to do, but
catching it is something you definitely learn

as you age beyond the numbers you thought
impossible when you were 6-years old.

When I was 6, I saw my teacher buying
a toothbrush in our neighbourhood shop.

I was stopped in mid-step-astonished that
even a teacher had to brush their teeth.

A boy on a bike just passed us, peddling up
this same hill as if we are standing still,

which, well yes, we are because he’s still
waiting for me to catch my breath. And

it occurs to me, being out-of-puff aside,
how lucky I am to still be able to finish

a thought from beginning to end.

In response to Stream of Consciousness Saturday #SOCS “Lucky” and  Miz Quickly’s 14 August: “Synonyms”. I went with the various forms of “breath”. The image is of Gold Hill, Shaftesbury, made famous in 1973, when Hovis filmed an advert for their bread. It was voted the U.K.’s favourite advert. It was filmed by Ridley Scott and the soundtrack to the advert was Dvorak’s New World Symphony. Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash. Shared with @Experimentsinfc #APoemADay on Twitter   ©Misky 2021