When Looking at the Columbia River is Like Listening to God

I thought of suffocation

I thought of sebaceous oil and dirt in pores

And how last night you said
I broke you

It was the most truthful
phrase you had said in years

one axiom I could
believe because

I myself had thought it true
for years

Felt the cracking
these clicks inside me

severed moments
where I no longer told myself

There, there now
But instead said

Ok, then
and felt the fissures

the truth packed down
the air kicked out

So, along I-84
as my eyes flitted with exhaustion
and my lungs asked for air

I thought of oil and dirt in pores

I thought of suffocation