we pretend

We pretend it’s nothing to be born

A thing nobody asked for

Nobody asked to be

We pretend it’s only breathing, just a breath

But something in the air we breathe

Is a witness against our ignorance and blindness

We are fast asleep

Though not many of us dreaming

We are walking in a cloud escaping form

We are wrapped like vines around a standing pillar

Scaling the surface with our leaves

We are breaking bread

And making much of every morsel on the shelf

Noting the absence of ourselves from the table at which we sit

Where have we gone? Hid away with silent echoes

In the corners of existence

The air that we’ve been pretending to be breathing

All along