crooked as corkscrews

Learn how to breathe with lungs smoldering;
when the smoke fills every space
and the aftertaste on your tongue lingers for days:
sharp, bitter, and unrelenting.

Learn how to breathe with battery acid in your throat.

Teach yourself how to breathe, if you have to.
Build yourself a new set of lungs, if you have to.

Inhale. (No, you’re not okay.)

Exhale. (Stop thinking you have to be.)