a penny for your breath

Not counting on your next breath
Much like shaking a piggy bank upside down
A penny for your thoughts
You poor asthma boy.

Frosty shivering window winds
Fermenting agile hope of air
A lace of lead upon your chest
If a penny for every struggle you bought.

A castle and kingdom walls be yours
Unlike your breath, built to last
A fortress guarding breath from death
A pigeon now guards my late asthma boy.