breathing in
filling our bodies with right now
from the dirt below us
from our toes to our knees
hips up our spines
shoulders to earlobes
the tip top of our heads to beyond
to the stars
breathing wide
across our wingspan
into that sacred and constant silk web
where we belong
breathing deep
inhale back to great grandmother’s bosom
exhale seven generations of blessings
that will come through our
next choices
even now
we can be present
even now
life is right here, still
an erotic pulse kissing your jaw line
a restlessness of mind: too much, too little
there’s still someone you are longing to see
someone who startles you with simple pleasure
just because they exist
even now
we can anticipate harvest
be shocked by the thunderclap, the storm
laugh at the abundance of our grief
and our earnest attempt to avoid the inevitable
we are a delight
we could be another’s blessing
with our brief and epic lives
where every day
we are given the option
of love
Added: Thursday, November 17, 2022 / Poem used with permission. The poem originally appeared in print in "Fables and Spells: Collected and New Short Fiction and Poetry" by adrienne maree brown (AK Press, 2022).
Photo by Anjali Pinto
adrienne maree brown grows healing ideas in public through her multi-genre writing, her music and her podcasts. Informed by 25 years of movement facilitation, somatics, Octavia E Butler scholarship and her work as a doula, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Transformative Justice as ideas and practices for transformation. She is the author/editor of seven published texts and the founder of the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute, where she is now the writer-in-residence. You can find more information about their work on their website.
Image Description:adrienne maree brown looks into the camera with a big smile and two curly pigtails on either side of their head. They wear a black tank top with an aqua-green septum nose piercing, an aqua-marine earring, and glitter eyeshadow.
