Poetry
anneal this breath
ANNEAL | heat up and cool down
slowly; soften and strengthen to
eliminate stress that accumulates
through time; forge an open
response to resist and shapeshift
without losing one’s essence.
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mine and refine this float of molten
landscape raw silica-sand and
limestone sites sliced and stirred
and hot-shop forged we
witness excavations of targets and
melts a redaction of origins of
lives of lands
see what a breath can do
flux and bubble rise to fever-
point and sweat hot flesh on
flesh so carefully laid rested
and hung body-broken
to sway see their shadows cast
low in the sun just what they
wanted what a breath what
breath
see what her sorrow can do
what a love a brave pure
love this one grain of sand that
refuses to disappear the
slightest fissure to rupture and
dissect an unbearable fantasy facade
she seeks heartbeats and bloodlines
she exhumes humanity
assembles beauty to nurture and
grow
see what her love can do
our screams soar into mighty blue
skies dust to dust bury them
deep we scratch up to the
surface all flesh cinder and
ash their charred revelation what
we’ve always known their silence
translucent she is patient she
waits she inhales and
exhales she waits
see what her breath can do
recognise this breath gifted
from Old Ones lessons afloat
in the wake of time a warm
breeze-like dance on shards of
shadow and light navigate
their caress the gentlest of
touch she will hold their breath-
deep for as long as it takes for
as long as it takes to furnace and
shape you a story
see what a breeze can do
a perfect wall of brittle display a
cultivation of whiteness stolen
and displaced she seeks paper
and blood where bodies are
traced she gathers them near this
suitcase of breaths to one day
rest she carries in case in her
case in her
let us see what they can do
these shimmering dreams not
what they seem a fallout mirage
of epic distortion from furnace
to fission and shrouds of black mist
to poisonous shards of green-to-
black we bear witness to
defiant life to a mass of
destruction to her fruits her life
to her body her strength her blood
now see what her breath can do
Commissioned for the catalogue of the Yhonnie Scarce exhibition Missile Park, which opens at ACCA this weekend.
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on March 27, 2021 as "anneal this breath".
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