You tried to teach me how to give birth
Through movement
Somatic therapy
Because stillness had become a certain kind of death for me
You pulled me in, wanted me to see what you already knew
The cypher is a womb
Home for a beggar before me and a beggar after me
After class I would try to confide in you,
But the beat had beat all the words out of me
Honestly, 10 years later I am just beginning to speak my truths
Ready to krump
Ready to release the rage
But my stutters and silence were conversation enough
You would gesture for an embrace but my face would contort
I begged you to remind me how to lift my arms
how to open the vents in my heart to let love flow in and out
Years later, you pulled me into another cypher
to welcome me home after my assaults
But for the first time in my life I danced off beat
I felt too dead to be in the middle of something so alive.
Poem is from Power of Our Wombs.