to the unsung Autonomic Nervous System

Well, everything was going fine
until, before a breath,
she thought, "If I don't breathe in now,
I'll suffer from my death."

So breathe she did.
She sucked in air
and revelled in this solution,
and then she thought, "If I don't exhale
I'll die of self-pollution."

So she blew out air,
but then she thought
of her wretched memory.
One time she'd burnt the kettle
when she'd always just made tea.

So she thought, "Set a timer to take a breath
and another for exhalation."
And that worked so well for a breath or two
that she thought, "Felicitation!"

And then she thought about her blood,
and the way it always swishes,
and died of cardiac arrest, thinking,
"I forgot to wash the dishes."