how do you learn to swim
if you have already drowned?
if i suffocate from rain
let me turn into hailstorm.
if the shelters collapse
put me back into the rubble.
if my car skids, let it
peel itself from a sinkhole.
when trees cave in
they provide a wall of oxygen—
let me swelter on the life i inhale.
lifeguards are absent
from torrential storms,
so handcuff me to the sky.
i have learnt to be brave
to breathe.