The Fleeting Breath

by Ruhudeen Ali
July 9th, 2006

What is the fleeting breath?
In its absence life is surely death.
We live for its presence behind every corner and moment,
but until it arrives to stir us from sleep, we lay dorment.
And when it arrives it opens up the eyes
showing us life’s pleasures we would otherwise never realize.
How can the mind perceive the same things as different,
when its judgment is based upon the same instruments?
And yet, the same sky one moment is blue, the next dark
strange is the mind that projects its own marks.
But truth be told, we are all like this
in our painful episodes there’s no room for happiness.
So instead of searching the skies for the answers, we turn to our hearts for the reason to live.
Oh, what we wouldn’t do for a moment of this life giving breath! What we wouldn’t give!
Most my life has been spent in search of this breath,
but despite knowing this, patience is all that’s left.
The child in everyday adventures, the teen in youthful follies, in the sigh of the adult
all seek the fleeting breath…