“who are we / and how shall we defend / ourselves as members of what / family?” -June Jordan1
here, in this place,
we do not describe each other as family,
or even, as chosen
family. here, in this place,
we reckon with the ongoing past.
on what foundation is the present family, the biological family, based? on captivity, on flesh.2
we understand that the normative concept of family, despite many variations, is always toxic.
we understand that the normative concept of family is nuclear. as in bomb. the right to kill.
a tie that binds us, not to the people we love, but to the hegemony
of whiteness and civilization. to patriarchy and capitalism. to the symbolic order
of cis-het binaries, contracts, and taxonomies.
to the supremacy of blood.
here, “we are a conspiracy”3 in excess
of the state, of time. the river
and its return. tributaries with
no calculus but that which escapes the capture
of Man: the wildness
of our fantastic confluence.
we are back to water,
unmoored.
________
1 From June Jordan’s poem, “Famine.” 2 Based on a passage from the Communist Manifesto by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx: “On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? On capital, on private gain.” 3 From Assata Shakur’s poem, “Love.”
Added: Tuesday, March 12, 2024 / Used with permission.
Tala Khanmalek | mecca monarch (all pronouns) is a queer, disabled, Iranian writer, editor, and scholar. Their poetry has appeared in Split This Rock's beloved Poem of the Week Series for which they also served as a First Reader.
Image Description: Tala Khanmalek stands in front of a microphone on stage with papers in hand to read poems. Tala wears a black t-shirt with a denmin vest over it and hoop earrings. Tala's long, dark brown curls are worn lose over their left shoulder and down their back.
