barefoot thoughts in a domesticated language / How To: De-Landlock a Country / How To: Forgiveness (a critical analysis)
barefoot thoughts in a domesticated language
swan-like moon with tears for words
holds out her hand to me-
an ancestor who knows i am dooming her lineage,
but wouldn’t have it any other way.
pearly teeth on a necklace hung
with grape vines and red raspberry thorns.
cutting into my neck, deep into the veins,
worming it’s way like a traveler
following a map to my core.
i’m a woman with scorpion stingers–
a magnetic energy that keeps me pulled taunt
towards water at all times.
i’m a baltimore oriole with swollen eyes
instead of song.
i’m walking out, away from the dry land and sandy plain,
out into my lifeblood; ocean water
that takes off layers of skin and replaces them
with salt.
the parts of me that are soiled and used
fall away in the tepid water,
the parts of me that are sacred and undomesticated-
cling to passing kelp and shells like children.
he could never understand
why i am wild
and yet i wallow in the days at sea
trying to find a single reason
not to be.
How To: De-Landlock a Country
Sandcastles
built up like homes,
no people sleep inside.
The threat of water
is relentless,
boats- more like prayers.
Don’t build your home
on the lions back,
this is not brave.
Homes bunch up,
slick up to the storm;
the suffocating heat
playing a slow, unmovable bass.
The windshield wipers
hold back the storm.
I find myself clinging to trees like mirrors,
hoping to get to know a mother
before the water rises.
Look in the mirror, (that woman’s eyebags are) enough
to carry this whole damn planet above the flood.
And,
Looky here, girly,
clownin’ round and actin’ a fool
when the ocean is risin’ before yer eyes
is jus a recipe for losing yer home.
Dark clouds serve
the rain on big platters.
The oceans grow under mouth.
The water is restless,
the water is restless,
the water
will come.
Leave your belongings
leave your family
leave the planet
leave the goodbyes
leave.
The waters are coming.
Don’t you know it’s lucky
to only lose one thing in your life?
Don’t you know that one thing is supposed
to be that single, precious life of yours?
High head above water
I’m spending my spirit wounded
as sickness spreads.
A map you think leads you to salvation, I’m sorry…
it only leads you to a landlocked country.
You know, it’s all temporary, sweetheart.
Who will lift the lock
with godlike fingers and pluck out the deathly flood?
Who will be our Moses?
Who will help us
drain the city
so that our feet may climb our broken villages
and look out upon this government’s aquarium.
Who will rebuild the city? I weep.
But, my sweet girl…
who will
go back?
How To: Forgiveness (a critical analysis)
Drawn unconsciously,
unconditionally
with charcoal on her own body;
woman in water and water through woman.
Woman on sand | she’s magnetic,
Woman who can’t be | pulled away–
Woman deprived | reunited at last?
Woman meeting her beginning
millenia ago when her only ancestors
were ocean and moon.
Tribute, sacrifice, prayer for the same blood
that nourishes her body,
that has been everywhere-
Mariana trench, Amazon rainforest, Bermuda triangle,
feminine water feeding a thousand mouths that will never fill.
Half moon bowl soaking up smog,
saving trees by killing men.
Rageful, glowing, taken by rope,
woman harnesses ocean wind to
blow out her birthday candles,
gusts splitting the Atlantic,
temperament; tempera paint
marking her language as submissive. easy. prey.
Sketches birthing a whole new woman,
ready-made, share size girl
on the floor of a city that can’t
look her
in the eye.
Artist Statement
In my work I find myself perpetually focusing on womanhood and water as instruments of the revolution.
Emma Paris
Emma Paris is a 17-year-old poet hailing from Putney, Vermont. She has been writing poetry intensively for over 7 years, some of her most recent publications and accomplishments include: Gold and Silver Keys from Scholastic Art and Writing Awards 2024; poetry published in Chautauqua "Close Encounters'' 2023; attending the Governors Institute of the Arts 2022 in Castleton Vermont. She is an alumnus of the Ruth Stone House Next Galaxy Retreat 2021. Emma has been published in The Brattleboro Reformer and VTDigger through the Young Writers Project, her poetry has been featured in Poems Around Town and Poem City programs across the country. She has poetry in the upcoming issues of Zaum Magazine 28th Issue, and Wyldcraft Literary Magazine Spring/Summer Issue, respectively. Emma is a Youth Poet Laureate of Vermont 2024 runner-up.