Inter-sections -the word makes it seem so clean cut
That parts of me merge at clean angles
To form the whole, like a road with directions
Signposting my whiteness, my femininity,
Religion, class, ability, identity.
But I have these unseen parts, invisible even to me
That hide behind the thickets of my life.
And in those growths like blades of grass
There are different shades of my white, woman, worldview
That only begin to make sense of my being and becoming
When like leaves upon the tree of life it naturelinks me
To other foliage of different intensity, hues and tones
I am part of something bigger than can be said
I join the stream of life’s complexities
Encountering the ebbs and flows
From me to you, whatever form you take.
Rhizomatic whirls of roots
Entangled but glorious in their growth.
There are no straight lines that connect I to you
And you to me and us to them
Instead they weave their way through ups and downs
The highs and lows, upheavals and celebrations
Turning in on themselves, making knots
A labyrinth of winding paths, until at last they find their way
From I to you and you to me
From us to them.
Pay close attention to life’s inter-section-ality
See it in its many complex forms striving against
Banal-ity, immoral-ity, convention-ality, condition-ality
Socially gracing us with intention-ality to bear witness to
Immateri-ality, conceptual-ity, limin-ality, univers-ality.
Intertwine one and all, make a forest, feed each other
Find ways to deal with threats lying in the undergrowth
Breathe a sigh and let that expiration be inspiration
Speak out against extinction in all its different forms
Give voice to evolution, emergence and expansion
Give rise to living, being, relating as one.
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Jenn, I look forward to reading more of your writing. For me, your poem has spareness and fineness, it’s visual and weaves cognitive, emotional and bodily together so effectively…”Breathe a sigh and let that expiration be inspiration “ thank you!