We are the stuff of burnt-out stars Salt song oceans Million-year-old mud Our bones tell us secrets We do not know this Sunflowers we planted in April are 10-foot giants Russet faces smile down On us even in the rain We know this is so but do not know why The backyard is bereft Empty of you sitting in your sun dress Your iced tea with a straw I was with you the day you bought the blue gingham from Goodwill Your shoulders so thin and frail I wanted to drag you back into childhood Take back wishes for easy and quick We know this is called regret The shopping cart with Everything you own is in the garage The policeman hooks his thumb Near his gun as he says we can't Give you your things Tells me the cart cannot stay On the street where they Took you bruised and dirty to Nisqually for 60 days or three years We know this is called the system The place where you are lets you choose "transgender" on your electronic profile Makes you wear men's clothes We know this is called progress
Gaian Rena Bird is a Black Indigenous womxn, writer, poet, and artist living in University Place, WA. She is an Elder, a sojourner in liminal spaces, and a denizen of multiple margins. As an introverted human with numerous disabilities, she reveres Crip Time as her superpower. Gaian writes from a place inseparable from her motherline. The works of transgressive Black and Indigenous women are the spiritual food and drink that fuel her words.
10/4 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence Raina J. León / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free
10/4 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence Raina J. León and local poet Susannah Winters Simpson / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:30 pm EST / Free
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