"I can't forget, forgetting doesn't exist"
- Evariste Twahirwa, Rwandan refugee

We breathe molecules
that lived in space
for billions of years,
and radiowaves
from galaxies we can't see.

We breath carbon dioxide
trapped for eons under the ocean,
charcoal from the burning rainforest,
methane from cow pies in Africa.

We breathe the exhale of volcanoes,
salamanders and lions.
Bits of skin and hair,
saliva and sweat,
arrive with salt from the wave tops
of every sea. A vast pollination,
this exchange with the poor
and homeless of every country.

There is such intimacy in this sharing.
Like lovers
becoming more cruel
than enemies.