You lay down and breathed,

you, a man caught up in a dream of elegance

and who visualised touching

eternity, who traced a line on which forever

was braced,

you breathed

and the world below

breathed with you.

 

As you looked towards the heavens,

the sky beneath your feet,

did you look for divinity in humanity?

 

Did you surrender the soul as you saluted the sky

and in a moments bliss know that nothing,

nothing,

nothing could take this feeling of accomplishment away

as you lay back and thought of the rush and the quiet

of the quarter of a mile breathing souls below you

but to whom you elevated in a single act of heroic beauty?

 

Breathe,

I imagine the image, the picture of you breathing

as you cradle in the divine wish of submission

and I breathe with you, still, quiet but alive,

breathe and let the wire be your salvation,

salute the thin edge of reason

for it is magnificent.

 

Dedicated to Philippe Petit and those that dare breathe.

Ian D. Hall