Learning To Breathe Again Poem by Patti Masterman

I learned to breathe by being dumped unceremoniously
On the shores of some distant world
I had heard only through flesh-muffed sounds
Of an encapsulated ocean, for nine months.

I learned to walk by falling down again and again
And persevering, though covered in bruises
Because someone continued to hold their arms out toward me.
I did not blame the ocean.
I did not blame the arms.

I learned words by being spun around, knocked down,
Held underwater, and having my legs kicked out from under me
Again and again, until words were all that remained of my distant pain:
A world outside me, of tiny blows raining down like somebody's dripping laundry,
My mouth filled with nonsense syllables, spit out through choking seaweed;
And all because someone would not embrace me:
I have now become inscrutable as any ocean-
But I will never blame the falling rain.