The colored body is a cathedral. Do not let the world tell you otherwise. I made this print in response to a series of traumatic intimate experiences I had where the lover did not listen to my body, and treat my body with respect. This print encourages all women, queer and gender nonconforming people, especially people of color, to honor the cathedral of their own body, and not be ashamed to ask their lovers to treat them with respect and listening.
Touch is a Prayer:
We walk upon the frozen sheet.
You take my hand and make
the first incision: There isn’t
much time. Can I kiss you?
When our lips touch, my axis
tilts toward your weight.
A thousand years of history books
balanced on our heads topples –
A blast of freezing water. You ask:
How far do you want to go?
Why care so much about the destination?
You make me a jellyfish, out of water.
I feel my tenderness pierce into you
like a flaming match. As you burn bright
I realize how badly you yearn to be stung.
I’ve never felt more woman
than when your touch commanded
me to become one. You are deaf
to everything except your gravity
pressing me down. You penetrate
until we are drowning.
You say: so wet, I want to be inside.
I thought: I get this wet every night,
but not for you. You want me;
a tropical sky, overripe, stripped
of all cloud and sliced into.
I avoid your eyes, and watch
the black sky, the soft swaying
of the stars. I want to explain:
the muscle memory of my own hand.
I want to go back to the lake, frozen,
unbroken and shining. The call
& response of our conversation
in motion. The ice, before you
slipped and cracked it open.
Now, as we swim back through
freezing water, boy,
let me tell you: Touch
is a prayer.
& when the cathedral
of my body echoes it back:
You will listen to it.
These prints are the remaining edition from our Community Supported Art program in 2016. Printed by Molly Fair.
