I Too Deserve to Breathe

Ademola Adesola, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Department of English, Languages, and Cultures at Mount Royal University.

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Breathing isn’t a chocolate bar fit for the smooth road of your tongue alone;
You can’t breathe freely if I can’t breathe.
For the wellness of our beings,
I too deserve to breathe.

I too deserve to breathe.
When I ask you to give up your old way of privileging your own body,
I express my inalienable right to breathe.

I too deserve to breathe.
When I say your policies are choking me,
I affirm my power to breathe.

I too deserve to breathe.
When I demand you take down walls of division,
I proclaim the freedom of everyone to breathe unconstrainedly.

I too deserve to breathe.
When I say all peoples deserve to breathe,
I speak of breathing as a human necessity and not a privilege to be allowed some against others.

Who deserves to breathe?
You, I, he, she, they, it, and we.
Homosexuals, heterosexuals, the religious, the atheists, the political, the apolitical, the affluent, the impoverished – think any human; include any non-human being.

When I breathe, you breathe.
When she breathes, he breathes.
When we breathe, you breathe.
When they breathe, we breathe.
When it breathes, we all breathe.

Let’s breathe individually; let’s breathe collectively.
In our rainbow breathings are assured our continuous beings. 

 

 

Throughout the month of February, MRU is presenting the voices of Black writers from the community in recognition of the power of words. If you have a submission, please email mbodnar@mtroyal.ca.