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  • The American Poetry Review

    A PERSONAL HISTORY OF BREATHING

    Sep 01, 2020 2 minutes
    JOY PRIEST

    We woke to life in the 80s. The air dying
    from industry & industry dying. Train brakes
    groaning to a stop & that singular scent
    of horses, their muscular lather & manure
    moving down river to Mississippi. Our grandfathers

    chain-smoked Viceroys in the house& weread books & held our breath, spelledbut didn’t speak. In our bodies, humidity thickenedinto an argument with speech. When we joined

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