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Groundwork 		Laying the Groundwork
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Ink in my Blood (poetry edition)
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 Ink in my Blood (poetry edition)
If I Breathe

David J. Thompson

November then; the trees had lost
their splendor. We were up the Hudson,
in the woods past Poughkeepsie, talking
poetry at a conference when we heard
that Dylan Thomas was dying. My friend,
John Berryman, said, I’m breathing for Dylan,
if I breathe for him, perhaps he will remain alive.

He and I got to back to the City in the morning,
went straight to Dylan’s room at St. Vincent’s.
A nurse told us his wife was there the day before,
a bottle of rye stashed in her coat. She screamed
she felt like a bride, tried to climb in bed with him,
and tore a crucifix down from the wall. Security came,
took her away, probably to Bellevue.

When I came back with sandwiches and coffee
for lunch, the lights were out and the shades drawn.
I put my arm around John’s shoulders and we stood
bedside, swaying slightly from side to side to the rhythm
of some silent hymn we both were hearing. I could sense
him trying so hard not to cry that I pulled him closer
to me, felt his beard against my cheek, and whispered
to him to remember always to breathe.



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