I’m breathing in everything around me.

Mm.

I’m taking in the carbon atoms, the hydrogen atoms, the oxygen molecules, the dust, and the matter that have accumulated and broken down over the past centuries. A dinosaur has just been sucked right into my chest. The bullets and broken bones of the Civil War have just been swallowed right into my lungs. The pieces of the Berlin Wall remain stuck in my throat. Pieces of the Columbus disaster, remnants if the pyramids, particles of the Dust Bowl, bits of the atomic bombs, the My Lai massacre, the Crusades, the marches to Washington, the Battle of Gettysburg. I’m breathing in everything around me.