Oxygen is a narcotic

Oxygen is a narcotic

It is impossible to deny

Breathing an essential

Before red mist falls

There is no living without

The sweetness

Of the first taste of morning

Filling the lungs

Deeply drawn

A wet cough

To clear the cobwebs

Open the airways

A little less widely

Than in times gone by

When young hearts

Were pumping

Richly red haemoglobin

In powerful surges

With every contraction

There is discomfort

In restriction

Deprivation creating

More than a murmur

Of discontent

Starvation elevating

The risk

Of blue murder

A cardiac arrest

In a suicide vest

Respiratory failure

Is an end of life experience

Unless oxygenated

There is no free air

It is an expensive habit

To inhale,

Every inflationary breath

Will bring us all

One infusion

Closer to death