“Loosened, I can breathe now without distress
like an asthmatic cured of too frequent
suffocations, inhaling a free wind
free of desire, just a potent drive
to run, to fly, not to flee
but to try in a different language
not to sigh
to plunge into the promise of
being unclaimed
without stakes, without the incessant
need to hold on, to wait, to break
and to stop to be rescued,
now released, the run is swift,
the run exhilarates like the joy of second
chance, the promise of a ribbon…unfurled.”