Joanna Sit
In Which The Body Contemplates Its Own Fidelity
What we do with this amnesiac thing
That never tells the truth that moves against our nature: We live
In fear of the wreckage in its mouth, dread of our story
Changing daily on its tongue, cynical & shredded from slacking lips
Sometimes it swears eternity when clearly everything dies. It says
The wars are elsewhere & ignores the ships burning on the open sea
It walks away from the glint of knives, mimes
Another story to confuse the history of our scars
It plunges our hands in the dirt to pull the roots
Of the sapling that has not yet seen the sun
& tells us to bury our dead our loss to move on
From it, to forget, that there’s no hurt, no such thing
As pain. Oh honey, let’s believe that misdirection
In its endless transmutation, its scent of harrowed rot
Do the cha-cha like movie stars under neon starlight
Under silver linden flowers under solstice sky
Let’s be faithful in a room full of mourners
Let’s eat, let’s drink, let’s make songs from a life of lies
Let’s make a body of proof that we came from water
Where we heard the humming wave before we were born
There will be a season of lilies when a boat’s waiting
To take us into another life another mind another & another
Let’s sit here in the dark, kiss long & hard
While we still have time, like in our green youth wanting
Let’s know all about that sweetness of days
That weight of yearning when the music cuts through a world
About to end, the peal of bells float above trees
Anchors years hidden from bone & flesh & throat & eyes
Let’s believe everything
Let’s dance