Filtered

You need to take some time away, to reset your lungs.

As long as you get periodic vacations to clean air, your system resets itself.

The doctor’s words ring in my ears as I stare out at infinite layers of emerald in the rice terrace.

Shift my gaze to the whirling swifts welcoming the day, then attend the endlessly busy crickets and cicada white noise.

Dawn.

Morning is all flutter, whistle, song,

and symphony.

We’d come off a rough stretch of bad air. It’s a combo platter of burning, inverted barometric pressure (I don’t know what I’m talking about but humor me), the lead up to Lunar New Year, and, well, the weather. 

Our usual air monitor app has read consistently above 250:

hazardous

We’re topping the charts,

global heavyweights

number one with a mask

but this hit song is not one of my favorites.

So, we take advantage of our position and make a move. Doctor’s orders, and all.

How lucky we are to be able to make such a choice

We take advantage of the break, and rumble to the jungle. 

I stare out toward the distant ocean, grateful for this respite and a chance to reset

follow the flight of a solitary winging, dipping, darting bird who greets me, as if to say

Hello.

I am so glad you are here 

 I respond

The feeling is mutual

And take a deep, unfiltered breath

and drink the air. 

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