How We Remember
Chattanooga, TN
2018, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
You tell me about the ocean
and I will tell you
how the body longs to be
remembered,
how we stand
on the backs of our mothers
and curve bows to curve
as we put our hands all over
that water and that sky,
how we twist the word human
between our teeth and rupture
the spine of every letter
with poignant tongues,
how we climb each other like water
rising fist by fist over forearm and ankle,
how we can almost reach the hollow of space,
the dark crest of the imagination.
Children of motion,
gods of the unnecessary,
the body longs to be
remembered and you
are forgetting her.
She is covering you softly,
laid out like all those eyes,
you call out to her, ocean?
Ocean we are tired.
We are getting you so blurry,
all those fingerprints.
And she says, let go.
One by one our bodies tumble
into the water like dead things cut away
and she rises up around us.
My body, she says,
created yours.
You crawled out of me
from salt flecked lashes.
My body is more
than all your wanting,
it is old and rutted, and pulses
as I fill every space.
Do not forget me.
As we float like ghosts of motion
she pulls the future gently
from our fingers.
She says, everything
can be a weapon:
those hands,
what you leave,
what you make me into:
the silent unknown.
I will tell you
about the ocean,
how I went down to her
in the dark,
her body splayed out
like every living thing,
how she said,
look at me,
every scream or song
all in her voice,
her edges torn away
from our nails jagged with future,
how the lights of houses stuttered
across her, softly.
I will tell you,
she whispers,
how the body longs to
be.
Reflection
Reflection
I have loved the ocean and felt its distinct presence in my life since I lived in California as a young girl. It was always close, in the sand at the bottom of the bathtub or the seashells on my mother’s desk, and because of this I had no problem remembering it. As I moved far away and life became busy, I found that while the deep, fundamental love was there, its presence in my life was much more of an afterthought. As people we are incredibly future-oriented, and will do whatever it takes to create the latest technologies and push the limits of our discoveries farther and farther. In doing so we leave the important things behind. We forget about the ocean. We would rather explore the mystery of space than the mysteries of the water and the safety of its inhabitants because we are so focused on moving forward. We don’t care what we hurt or destroy in our efforts to get there. This poem is about learning to love what is already in front of us and remembering to slow down and pay attention. This is the first step towards change.