unmoored

i too become the driftwood

worn by water’s memory

my shape defined by the gaze of my witness

don’t forget, please don’t forget:

water re-members everything.

tendrils of a life once bounded

tethers torn, uprooted

stretch out

grasping

bleeding

phantom limbs

in search of earth, something to hold

cruel attachments seeking certainty, control

deface living, deface meaning.

unmoored we give ourselves up

surrender to the salt

unmoored we reckon

with our own capacity to destruct.

we pray:

forgive us, please forgive us

our chests heaving

retching

screaming

we re-member

this is not the end, but the beginning

we gather and disperse, we unveil

the brutality of the individual self

sent by Ocean, rolled by water, flung by waves*

we give ourselves up, we give ourselves away*

we practice and consent not to being a single-being*

*prose here are references to the work of Fred Moten.