by Sherese Francis
Am I? I have been both
Pierced and have pierced;
Now holy with a stream of thoughts
Like Cain wandering the world,
Scarred with the mark of remembrance,
The weight of a brother’s life
Hanging on dis body.
Knowledge is a blossoming rose of blood.
The ancient craftsman decides
What fabrication
Will reveal dis body of spirit:
Is the empty conquering
The dominance over another
The loneliness worth
The fear masked
The unfulfilled desires
Of wanting belonging
Affection
But not open to receiving it
Not open to being carried in my own fabrication?
Is my name a weapon
Or a force
Or a forging
Or a woven together space for brotherly love
With no judgement
With no envy
With no fear?
Where is the rest beyond the constant running away?
The constant hustling and grinding?
Beyond dis figure haint-like and peddling a heated posture?
Beyond a scarred shame of a mark?
Into a healing gesture;
To realize my brother is like my breath, my heartbeat
Is like a breath we all breathe, a beat we all feel together.
Sherese Francis (she/they) describes themselves as an AlkyMist of the I-Magination, finding expression through poetry, interdisciplinary arts (collage, book and paper arts, sound and performance art, text art), workshop facilitation, editing, and literary curation. Sherese has published work in various journals and anthologies, and published four chapbooks, Lucy’s Bone Scrolls, Variations on Sett/ling Seed/ling, Recycling a Why That Rules Over My Sacred Sight, and Lady Liberty Smashing Stones, and edited a poetry anthology/guided journal, Baby Suggs and a Purple Butterfly.
