My Beautiful People
by Arisa White
June 4, 2020
we’ve seen this before, we’ve felt this before
we’re standing on shoulders and someone’s standing on yours
and crying heals and clears your vision, attunes the eyes
on the back of your head, forges your insight with salt
this is the beauty of being awake in your body
your water whets the truth in yourself
we feel it deep and reaching
spiral flutter and electric rush
the duff of endarkened know-how-
rooting for everyone who’s black-
we need the sun and these screens distract us
from absorbing our greatest star
this is the time to grow your next-level leaves
break ways you’re complacent and complicit
to sacrificial roles our bodies play in this sociopathic
white supremacist patriarchal capitalistic dominator apparatus-
check where shade casts upon your intersections
too many mini-masters turning loops for the same trick-narrative
we are going to breathe and breathe better
notify everyone around us
that in addition to the breathing we already do
we’re taking 40 minutes each day for breathing
for all the air we can cycle in and out of us
for all the breath chased from our bodies
we will create the conditions to nurture us
by first nurturing our own unique human designs
cultivating a deep understanding of our bodies
in relation to other bodies and knowing time
as the attention needed to place a current
event within a historical tree-
because nothing thrives on today alone
we’ve seen this before, we’ve felt this before
we’re standing on shoulders and someone’s standing on yours
and crying heals and clears your vision, attunes the eyes
on the back of your head, forges your insight with salt
this is the beauty of being awake in your body
your water whets the truth in yourself
we feel it deep and reaching
spiral flutter and electric rush
the duff of endarkened know-how-
rooting for everyone who’s black-
we need the sun and these screens distract us
from absorbing our greatest star
this is the time to grow your next-level leaves
break ways you’re complacent and complicit
to sacrificial roles our bodies play in this sociopathic
white supremacist patriarchal capitalistic dominator apparatus-
check where shade casts upon your intersections
too many mini-masters turning loops for the same trick-narrative
we are going to breathe and breathe better
notify everyone around us
that in addition to the breathing we already do
we’re taking 40 minutes each day for breathing
for all the air we can cycle in and out of us
for all the breath chased from our bodies
we will create the conditions to nurture us
by first nurturing our own unique human designs
cultivating a deep understanding of our bodies
in relation to other bodies and knowing time
as the attention needed to place a current
event within a historical tree-
because nothing thrives on today alone
Arisa White is a poet, writer and educator. She is a lover, a wordsmith, a connoisseur of real life in all its hues and shades, ups and downs, smiles and cries of joy and sadness. She does not promote herself as an authority on matters of perfection in finding love, being in love or holding on to love. But her poetry certainly gives a crispy clear picture of the immensely rich world the author embodies. To read more about Arisa, visit her site here.
