There Was a Want

When I was in the hospital
To see my grandma
There was this man
Once upon a time
There he was 
That always took off his oxygen mask
No matter how much he needed it 
Regardless 
Of how much they told him not to 
He didn't want their oxygen
Is what he said
He didn't want to smell
Oxygen
The filtered, cleaning chemicals and 
A diluted element from
A germ free plastic mask 
That cuts into his cheek
He wants 
He wants 
To smell the rain 
On a spring morning when simply dew
Forms puddles of mud
The earth
And it's oaken infallible smell of soil
In crumbling clods of red clay 
That tumble
Down through and between the fingers
He wants 
He wants 
To not just live
Live a shell of a life
Strung down by and bound by 
Ripping tubes and needles chained
Into your insides
By a machine
Live by a machine
Because that's only existing
One cannot live in chains
They are simply
There 
So once upon a time
There was a man 
Who didn't want their oxygen
He wanted air
Who didn't want to inhale
He wanted to breathe
Who didn't take up their offer to exist
He made his own offer to live
There once was a man
Who wanted more. 


-anna sluder 

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