there are long complicated births
and endlessly simple deaths
and the ways we speak of them
the breath in lower and
higher octaves nouns either
whispered or shouted
often with tears of relief
or grief in those
hellos and goodbyes
for life come and goes
enters and exits
with different words for arrivals
and departures
and even from the
ever-present faces of flowers
there is an escort of oxygen
into and out of here