After Denko/ a meditation on birthing words, light, wisdom

1.

i am here    because the rattle of the blues brings down the spirits   because gravel in nina's throat loosens teh music in mine   

because i don't know my mother's mother's mother's name but she has a song to sing through me

because when i speak i want audre to wink and alice to clap three times

because my body is not a toy or a toilet or a laboratory  or an existential dilemma

2.

the spirit quivers in the space where dreams are fertilized adn nurtured

move the mountains spirits rattle the webs lose   loosen the breath

let the blood warm the skin

there is a riff the sun bakes only this body translates

let us be born

let us be born

let us be born

sweep me up in a ring-shout

i am healed   by the rattle    fed by the drum