All of Us, Together

There is a ceiling fan twirling somewhere
Slowly circling around and around
And a little child me watching
As tears dry on his face tracking
Down his temples to his hairline
And he thinks about the place deepest inside his heart
This all-white room where everything is safe
And no one can hurt him
And he lets the ceiling fan take him away
And he is breathing


And at the very same time
He is breathing
With a slightly older me starring into the distance
On a summer night
With the window open
In some trailer
In the middle of a wheat field
And he is looking out
All the way across the grain
At the one street light in the distance
Shining on a country dirt road
And wishing with all of his heart
That one day he would be in a great big city
Where the lights outnumbered the stars
And he is breathing


And at the very same time
He is breathing
With a teenage me
Blooming
And discovering
What it looks like to run in the moonlight
With a series of women
Howling and dancing
And scratching at the earth
And leaping across stages
He is breathless at how wonderful it is to worship Dionysus
And he stops

He watches the ladies of the night
And he tears up
And he is breathing


And at the very same time
He is breathing
With myself not so long ago
Crouched down in my shower
While my life crashed around me
And the tears mixed with my shower water
And I watched both of them rush down the drain
In ways I couldn't reach out and stop
So I watched
And I sobbed
And I called out for my father
And I prayed to my Gods
And I stood up
And the me that is somewhere still in that shower
Is forever standing up
In slow motion
And he is breathing


And right now
They are all breathing with me
And you
In this moment
As we ride at night in a cab through the city
And I watch the yellow light behind you
And the reds and greens and blues
Dance across your face
I lean in to kiss you
And I am breathing
With you and I
At the same time
In the shower holding one another
While the water
Washes over our kiss
And collects in between us
And I realize I have found a way
In this moment
To catch the water
With you
And I breathe
With you and I
Holding one another
After my burlesque show
Among feather boas
Corsets
And the applause of the ladies of the night
The bacchants who surround us
And we are breathing
In bed
Squeezing one another
While the city lights dance outside of my window
Too many of them to count


All of us are breathing together
In a chain
That links all of myself from then and right now
Right this moment
To the future
I feel your past
I feel the yous of then
Present right now
Breathing with all of us together
And they are breathing into my ear
As you hold me
They are reaching my skin
After a journey so long
It will take the rest of my life with you
To hear all about it from you
It will take a lifetime with you
To catch all of what you have been through
Inside my ear as you whisper your stories
And the yous
Of your youths
Touch me
And mine
But take your time
Because I am enjoying the way we are mixing


You all are warming my lips
As you kiss me deep and our breaths
Are mixing together
All at a time that we share