adrienne maree brown

some of us are never surprised

Wow, I have so much to say about this tragically historic moment in time that we are living through, starting with we fucking told you so.

But while I try to get my head together to write something more articulate than that, here is a new poem from the brilliant visionary adrienne maree brown.

what is unveiled? the founding wound. (poem/directive)

January 7, 2021

a body is always a body
individual or collective
(whole or in many pieces)
alive or, later, dead
a body is always vulnerable

a wound is always a wound
singular and deep
or many cuts, slowly, blood everywhere
left untreated, unstaunched, denied
a wound will always fester

the first wound happens within
the violence of birth
the expulsion from the illusion of safety
from the idea that someone (else)
will do all the labor

and some of us keep looking everywhere
for placenta, for mothering
for acceptance of our worst choices
to be told we are so special
to be named a favorite child

some of us learn to work
we are given tools, lectures, practices
we are given the blessing of knowing
that work to nourish the collective
is a sacred path for our lives

some are only taught to eat
given the title to land that isn’t ours
judged for the speck of dirt under our nails
set to race against even our own kin
for the neverending victory of more

some of us are black
still nauseous from the boat’s hold
still catching our breath from snapped ropes
still oiling our calloused field hands
and still wounded

some of us are white
still synonymous with impossible purity
still given no songs from the earth
still taught to master nothing but superiority
and still, wounded

some of us are red, yellow, brown
still made to feel tertiary to the plot
still dismissed for all we remember
still claiming we are human, not terrorist
and, still wounded

some of us are never surprised
never apoplectic when the stench hits us
what rots at the core is known, documented
it is tangible, moral, American, spiritual
it is the founding wound

gray only at the surface
brittle black where the injury began
a rainbow of bruising everywhere
green mold making life in dying flesh
but the pus, the pus bursts white

we are well past the age of turning inwards
of seeing the open wounds on our souls
of stepping into our shadows with truth light
of seeing we were shaped, and can change
of believing the wound is who we are

we know the smell of decay on breath
we see the swollen cracking flesh of infection
it is not rude to acknowledge the stink
to wonder if it is viral, venom, survivable
to look for the laceration(s)

things are not getting worse
they are getting uncovered
we must hold each other tight
and continue to pull back the veil
see: we, the body, we are the wounded place

we live on a resilient earth
where change is the only constant
in bodies whose only true whiteness
is the blood cell that fights infection
and the bone that holds the marrow

remove the shrapnel, clean the wound
relinquish inflammation, let the chaos calm
the body knows how to scab like lava stone
eventually leaving the smooth marring scars
of lessons learned:

denial will not disappear a wound

the wound is not the body

a body cannot be divided into multiple living entities (what us will go on breathing?)

the founder’s wound is the myth of supremacy

this is not the first wound, or the last

we are a species before we are a nation, and after

warriors, organizers, storytellers, dreamers – all of us are healers

the healing path is humility, laughter, truth, awareness and choice

a scab is a boundary on territory, between what is within and what is without, when the line has been breached

stop picking at the scab, it slows the healing

until we are dead, and even when we are exhausted and faithless, we fight for life

we are our only relevant hope
we are our only possible medicine

a body is always a body
wounded, festering, healing, healed
we choose each day what body we will shape
with the miraculous material we’re gifted
let us, finally, attend to the wound
let us, finally, name the violence
let us, finally, break the cycle of supremacy
let us, finally, choose ourselves whole
let us, finally, love ourselves
whole.

http://adriennemareebrown.net/2021/01/07/what-is-unveiled-the-founding-wound-poem-directive/

simulation results

Quarantine for kids

After screaming into the void for weeks on Twitter about the desperate need for massive testing and rapid social isolation, we are now living that quarantine life. Like many parents I am trying not to terrify my child (and myself), but unlike many parents I will not sugarcoat things. Especially after spending decades talking about how our political leaders are failing us, I am not going to lie about the fact that we are all suffering now because those failures have come home to roost.

I know my child thinks I am going a little overboard with this quarantine business, so showed him a few visuals to help him understand. These were the most helpful things we looked at today.

  1. Washington Post simulator showing the difference in infections between different policies such as partial quarantine and social distancing. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/
  2. The now-ubiquitous #FlattenTheCurve chart show how rapid spread will overwhelm the medical system. This available everywhere, we looked at https://www.vox.com/2020/3/10/21171481/coronavirus-us-cases-quarantine-cancellation
  3. A young man from Wuhan’s TikTok videos that show his experience in Wuhan (start at the last one). https://www.tiktok.com/@danielouyang

Cassandra at the peak of her madness.

It’s time for SOLIDARITY, not SURPRISE

It’s been two months since I posted, although I have new things to rant about every single day. While current events might seem unpredictable, and the bizarre machinations of the Bannon/Trump administration may surprise us, there is really nothing that we couldn’t have generally expected with basic knowledge of how authoritarian kleptocrats work, and by listening to what Trump and Bannon have said themselves.

I’m not saying I’m the smartest smarty pants, but I listen to a lot of very intelligent people. And I have already posted here about…

the many different ways that Republicans suppressed free and fair voting, and will fight democracy even more in the future;

that the Trumps are in deep with Putin, and have been for many years;

how crucial it is not to normalize this aberrant presidency, and stop letting a childish tyrant control the conversation with manipulative, illiterate Tweets;

that the systems of government that got us to this point are not going to save us now;

how Trump voters are selfish racist hypocrites, and that they are not the majority;

that Trump’s immigration policies are immoral and racist;

how quickly Trump-Bannon have moved to flood the swamp with sycophants, donors, and lying ideologues;

how it’s no accident that this is one of the most authoritarian governments we have ever seen in this country’s history;

how important it is to protest with direct action, build solidarity, maintain mindfulness, hold fast to our moral compasses, and think of the future right now;

that we need to be a lot more paranoid online because people actually are out to get us;

that gun control is a racial justice issue;

how Republicans are cheaters who can’t win fair elections, that want to muzzle peaceful dissent, and how they built a decades-long strategy to worship free enterprise at the expense of justice and criminalize their political opponents;

how proud I am to see my city stand up against hate;

how inept Democrats are, have been, and will continue to be at protecting us from Republicans’ nihilist destruction;

and most of all about how we need to be ready to put our bodies on the line to resist, and that we need to stop being surprised at the depths of Republican corruption.

When it happens again and again, I am left with not much else to say except SEE! I told you so. I told you so again. That’s boring and demoralizing.

Cassandra at the peak of her insanity.

‘Cassandra’ by Evelyn De Morgan (1898, London); Cassandra in front of the burning city of Troy at the peak of her insanity.

I keep coming back to Cassandra who was cursed to know the future and never be believed. Of course she went insane, who wouldn’t? I am trying not to follow that path by doing what I can: take care of my physical and mental health, take care of my child, teach him about the real world but also help him grow up to be a happy, healthy, and responsible person, stock up on emergency supplies, and build solidarity with friends and family that we are going to need when The Crisis hits.

We can’t know exactly what The Crisis will be, but I’m positive there will be a major national or international emergency precipitated/used by the Trumps to try to grab even more power. It could be a third world war, a Russian attack on our power grid, a weather disaster that is exacerbated by lack of federal infrastructure, disorganized mass protests and rioting, defunding of local government or other critical agencies that we rely upon, another rash of widespread hate crimes, or (maybe, possibly, hopefully) the people finally rising up together to take our government back when we realize that The Constitution is only as strong as we make it.

No matter what, we are living in some of the ugliest times of this nation and it’s almost certain to get much much worse before it gets better. I implore anyone who cares to take care of yourselves, but don’t turn away from the difficulty and suffering. Stay connected to each other, don’t allow authoritarians to isolate us at home, at work, in our community, or in politics. We need each other more than ever.