All Of It

This is a poem about ancestral memory. It's about the way our bodies hold stories from hundreds and thousands of ancestors across time and space. Gifts and pain and grief and joy. All of it. May we do the work of listening to and witnessing what's held in us, not just for our sake, but for all those who helped us be here today. Our healing is their healing, too.

All Of It

This body was born from all of it
daughter of love and ecstasy
of rape and violence

daughter of haunting silence
after loved ones left home

of aloneness and betrayal

this body is the daughter of joyful reunion
of belonging and dance
of raiding and pilfering

this body is the daughter of ones
who acted in horrible ways
ones who destroyed and displaced
who silenced and controlled

this body is also the daughter
of great resilient lovers
ones who loved the spiders and the soil
the songbirds and the swelling clouds

this body is the the daughter
of ones who listened and empowered
who protected and fought for liberation

this body is the daughter
of all of it

cells singing the songs of memory
from a whole chorus of voices

tissues aching and longing
to remember and to forget

muscles and bones
craving reconciliation
in the battles still being waged
inside of them

“help” they cry out
unsure if they will ever be heard

I hear you, I whisper back
I don’t know what to do
but I’m here with you

listening

the daughter of all of it