Words, Blood, Bird, Seeds
Collective poem by:
Shubhangi Singh, Kemê Pellicer, Minna-Kaisa Kallinen & Kikka Rytkönen asKiila ry contribution for the festival #Stophatrednow 2020.
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Whatch “Words, Blood, Bird, Seeds”
We are running out of breath,
bajé a la tienda* and they gave me oat milk.
Could we hold on with Chia seeds and left-over words for supper?
Chunks of words broken down into bite-sized pieces, tamed and domesticated.
Alphabets hanging loose on their edges like live wire–– activated, dangerous, unpredictable.
Words so charged that merely bringing them to the mouth could either fuel a life or take one.
And then I try to spit them all out, but the words keep coming
more and more and more and more and
they are like glue, like huge chewing gum, smothering
Sway
Wavering
Like a barely hatched bird, bird
So missing group waverings
dance
Clusters
Our breath is running away, from our tweets, from our nests.
It’s running a long way, crawling down the roofs, dripping, to the trees; Slithering, between us, roots and borders.
It is pouring itself, slowly, we are running out.
Swaying
Wavering
Like a tongue forgotten
writhing under its own linguistic weight
Find a blade
Make a cut
Let its blood flow
And watch as it leaves the streets tinted in its raging, torrential afterglow
Barely delicate
Almost not at all fragile
Bleeding
And being in doubt or not at all, almost
I saw that bird, I made that cut
It learned to speak through it, singing.
It grew sisters, from each lost drop, steady waves, licking the wound
salty love, melting.
The streets are now teething.
Painting their long nails like feathers, words trick the air
taking flight, tiny spores, colliding in new meanings.
The wings beneath, though feeble, catch wind
The sight, however, catch flame
Turning to ashes everything that the gaze lands upon
hazy touch, searing
The streets now lay upon blistering ambers
Bringing to their knees like falling pellets, words do afterall trick the mouth
Taking flight far beyond once desired or feared
Where would you now go from here?
What is it that you desire?
Your breath is running away
Your mouth is full of words
words that trick, tickles, itches
against your tongue
against your teeth
against everything you thought was there
I can still hear the bird sing
Waves
melting
catching air under the wings
Breathing slow
maybe touching
another day somewhere else
Waves
belting
so our morphing bodies sing
liquified switches
resilience and uncertainty,
alternating
resistance
current
Loving.
Mouth full of words
mouth
lips
lips molding
relentlessly verging on a touch
in due time
We are running out of time,
Could we hold off the hunger with a fistful of almonds laced with the left-over words for supper?
Description:
15’ Collective poem by Killa’s members Shubhangi Singh, Kemê, Minna-Kaisa Kallinen, Kikka Rytkönen. Each of the authors will read a part of the poem online, the poem was created under the premise of practising synchronous thinking, making and living. The poem is not an essay nor is it a manifesto. It is a tender reflection of a collective and rhizomatic co-forming.
