DEATH RATTLE by Mary Bone

It was the death rattle
I've heard about.
You can't breathe.
You find yourself hanging on
by a thread.
An iron lung was helping me breathe,
it was shaped like a coffin.
I wasn't ready to die.
Double pneumonia was almost
the death of me.

Mary Bone has been writing poetry and short stories since childhood. She has written two books of poetry. Some of her recent poems can be found at Poetry Catalog, The Whiskey River Review, Backchannels Journal, The Academy of the Heart and Mind, and upcoming at Literary Revelations.

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