Footnotes, Drinking Strange Water

No one takes lightness as serious as me
here, we read, in this weird slice of history
we call home

Babylon was the place to be, harps in willow trees
fingers traced shapes in clay
sang without words

we are so human when we think of Sappho
we are so human with a camera
we are so human near water

we learn to take advice from time and place
we unfocus our eyes
poems become shapes

It’s not literature, it’s witchcraft
nothing is true, everything is permitted
I anticipate nothing as intimate as history

Q: How do you handle poetic confidence?
A: Is this a trip you wanna go on with me?

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“I anticipate nothing as intimate as history” is Dionne Brand.
Other lines sourced from class conversation.

Natural Architecture

You are not clouds
you are the entire sky

A wonder of birds
wings form the shape
of a bird's body

feathers fall all aloft
& stones with feelings
older than linear time

speak with you
know to show you to
grow smooth in water

& water remembers
your evolution
all the pinks giving way

there's more
close your celestial eyes

there's more
feel the entire sky

Here's a little something I wrote on the ferry

Sunflowers, their seeds
I want to believe in naps

free from prisons, these
covert & daily incarcerations

I want a government funded
space to grab a years long nap

post caffeine crash
abundant lattes

abundant whippets
abundant grasses

government funded whatever
is on the top shelf

I want a government funded friend
warning ¡aguas!

moments before you go
for the puddle

government funded water
with happy memories

an ocean that knows
its grave history & loves still

we want
abundant sunshine

we want
free medicine

we want
our needs met today

their needs too
all of us

there’s enough
and everyday

community who knows
you are necessary

we know
you are necessary