nose hairs

the first breath, I don't remember
but I know the air was cold
and smelled of antiseptics
and my mother.

there were many after that one
some filled with the scents of apples
and unfiltered Camels
and the uriney smell of a diabetic
on her last legless leg.

every breath was filtered
by the several hundred
nasal follicles cleaned minute
by minute with mucus and
the saline that flows through me

I suppose I could live with out them
I am a strong healthy man
but they're sort of like you
and I don't want to live unfiltered.