new tings!

so i'm gonna share with you folks the two poems i have been sent to depict for my involvement with Transforming Spaces.  they're written by a fellow Art student/badass poet named Xan-Xi B. and her poems are pretty damn deep.  i love them for their tone, their subject matter, and their strength.  it's an honour to get the chance to depict them.

in the meantime, if you have any thoughts/interpretations about the pieces, don't be shy- let me know what you think.  it could help influence/reinforce my interpretation of the pieces- and subsequently, affect the final product.

Her Name                                                                by: Xan-Xi


She is
wounded Earth
hostile
afraid

A ghost of Glory
roughened pearl
robbed of its shine

She is
a Mother; raped
forced to incubate
seeds of despair
birth poverty

Her womb is swollen
Heavy
She grunts
screams
squats
and squeezes
bawling men
from her sex

Flies alight on her face
bathe in her sweat

They shit there
Fly away

Remember?
Fertile and pregnant
Earth shook and shivered
Coughed blood

Then- held firm as
Her children rejoiced
Her war is won

Begun.

Earth belonged to them
at last

She is free.
She is proud.
She is beautiful.

She is
Big-hipped
Violet-lipped
Strong.

Now
Earth trembles
Earth quakes
Her babies are sick

She coughs
lungs rattle
as she tries to
expel
snot
It clogs her throat.

Long-lodged bullets shift

She weeps.

She is My Sister.

Her name is

Haiti.

Sister, Love                             by: Xan-Xi



Sisters to the sea
Stones in the ocean
We are-

Hispaniola
half-side
of a pot pourri
sweet, spicy flavour
mix-up
fix-up
boil together for
hot pepper-pot

Beautiful flower
Haiti
Once a pearl
Gem of the
Caribbean
Naked now
only hard rock
to sit on
to shit on

Sisters to the sea
Stones in the ocean
We are-

Haiti
you’ve been
robbed
mauled
butchered
chopped up
chopped down
until the tears of the people
soaked through
the dust
and dampened the
bones of those
black, dark
Africans
that fought for their
Liberation to
Paradise

Sisters to the sea
Stones in the ocean
We are-

Haiti cries
a little more
everyday
as everyday
more babies are
ripped from their
mothers’ wombs
life-cord dangling
political suicide

Know this!
Sister Haiti
has been
scrubbed rotten
rubbed rotten
sucked rotten
and loved
until rotten

Sisters to the sea
Stones in the ocean
We are-

Rocks on the
same water
We are
from the same Africa
Man!
the same Africa land

Shared the same womb
sucked the same
tits-
Tell Me
Why you want to
fight your brother-Man
Deny your mother
Come on Man

Sisters to the sea
Stones in the ocean
We are-

Skin pressed
glistening
black
Our pasts move together
close
like the gentle stroking
the sexing
of two lovers on
the Caribbean sea

Sister, Love
I will deny you
no longer