areito for audre lorde

Photo by Sed Miles

areito[1] for audre lorde

“I am going to write fire until it comes out of my ears, my eyes, my noseholes--everywhere. Until it's every breath I breathe. I'm going to go out like a fucking meteor!” -Audre Lorde

you take

my hands

in your hands

spin me around

the universe

round one

the world is full of stars

round two

i realize the stars

are coming out

our eyes ears noses

mouths

*

there is a cord

sometimes

you call it language

sometimes

you call it gut

you string

your shells

and stones

through it

necklaced

by salt

*

a meteor

is a world

on fire

a star

out of place

light rushing

through

the medium

of your face

[1] The name of a Taino dance of healing that continues in Cuban spiritismo communities to this day as the Cordon.  It is a dance comprised by a group of people holding hands.  The healing blessing component of the dance ceremony seeks to harness the cosmic power of the meteor and the storm, spinning participants in a circle counter-clockwise.

This is also your annual reminder that in 1985 Audre Lorde wrote “I’m going to go out like a f**king meteor” in her journal in response to a liver cancer diagnosis. Her doctors gave her 6 months. Instead she died on this day. In 1992. At the peak of the Leonids meteor shower.

Today I woke up at 2am to start Audre Lorde’s ascension day with sacred observation of the Leonids meteor shower on Saponi lands tended by enslaved African geniuses. Thank you Audre Lorde for your blessed example. This salt-water writing feels like fire coming through. It is that cleansing. Today is the birthdate of my 5th book, Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals. This love. Yes. It does rush through every pore. It is every blessed breath.

https://www.akpress.org/undrowned.html

#pubday #praisethelorde