Tag Archives: Lungs

lungpipe shanty

that one with the punched lungs
has taught me to breathe freely
to expand in every moment
my view beyond the horizon
has taught me to get drunk on air
raise a toast to the blissful life
uncork & exhale my dreams
& inhale all possibilities

that one with the punched lungs
has taught me not to hie away
from each rum quaff of oxygen
each gulp, each gasp, could be the last
has taught me to square my shoulders
wear my sailor’s crown on high
walk the plank with a shambler’s jaunt
use my voice with ne’er a grumble

that one with the punched lungs
has taught me to sing shanties
to marinate beneath the stars
away from landlocked bores
has taught me to stand before storms
to know my place within them all
when even acid rain stings my lungs
when even the mast punches my lungs

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024

SEASON PREMIERE AT THE SNOW GLOBE THEATRE // Six Word Story #132

Wind, her lungs. Ice, her voice.

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023

somnus (nrem)

translucent in dreams
the tree of lungs inside you
breathes true outside you

Text by TONY SINGLE
Image by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2022

let it rain

have you dared to declaim with your true face
have you seen how they inward flinch
have they made a monster of the hole in you

have you longed for truest validation
have their eyes doth pummelled your face to tears
have you hidden your tears under veil of rain

if only this was a happy song
if only we could fill our lungs again
if only for the air ‘tween the drops of rain

have you pulled truer weeds from the broken earth
have you doth counted and more so for praying
have you monstered after the four-leaf clover

have you truly known that you never belonged here
have you paid your respects to friend grief again
have you layed yourself down in the face of pain

if only this was a happy song
if only we could feel our lungs again
if only for the air ‘tween the drops of pain

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2022

crosscurrent of spring

i’m sorry i shouted at you
i had no right (you told me darkly)
i sailed my disgrace through the reef of shame
but hadn’t we kissed at the blushing jetty?
was that just another tidal skeeting?

another day with nothing inside
yet hope still dabbed behind each ear
i’ve seen mermaids depart for other shores before
speaking wakes of dismantled devotion
i hope we prove to be the exception

once more in our summer of discontent
again we list sadly into fall apart
to become a sail’s wintry afterthought
but didn’t our lungs evolve for screaming
for when choppy waters beset us?

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2021