FIRST PURGE, THEN SILENCE

William O’Neal II was skeptical.

He’d taken pills all his life and they’d had only ever moderately helped his myriad cystic fibrosis symptoms. Invasive nebulizer therapies and harsh mucus-loosening treatments also hadn’t eased the pain of his savage coughing, a hallmark of this fatal genetic disease.

Then, during the spring semester of his sophomore year at Florida State, his lung function be-

THE MIRACLE OF BREATH PART IV OF IV

“I never stopped believing in something bigger outside myself. I don’t think you can do that and be a poet, because the poet is always asking questions of something outside of themselves.”

Please log in or subscribe to continue reading the article