Origins
Why are we concerned with origins
when there is nothing we can do about where we come from
because we already exist?
Existencia. Is it clean?
The moment we are born, we come out in a pool of blood,
powdered skin raw from the pushing.
We immediately are transported to a sink and cleansed
to become part of the species.
But what does this species mean to do with us,
after getting us ready for the filth of living?
Excrement stuck to tissues tender and pink,
gently breaking off to create a trail for life …
Follow the flow of procession – needles in arms,
exit the womb into land, less sacred.
Never to again purify skin the way the plasma did,
as it swayed around our heads –
crown of humanity.
Pre-infantilism a creed to plea,
under the tummy rub
of so many hands –
faces from the many lands.
Excrete to eternity
a certainty more than death,
break for life; the first breath
the infant holds, recycled dust
from a fallen star.
Jessica M. Wilson is Navajo Indian (Din? Nation) poet from East LA. She has an MFA in writing from Otis College of Art and Design and a BA in Creative Writing and Art History from UC Riverside. In 2009, she founded the LA Poet Society to bring the LA literary ‘scene’ into light — so there would be transparency between poets and poetry venues, publishers, musicians, artists and all creatives. Jessica is a poet teacher, LA area coordinator for California Poets in the Schools, and believes in the power of the word! She’s in 100 Thousand Poets for Change and Revolutionary Poets Brigade! She’s a Beat Poet and dedicates her words to the freedom of Mohammad ibn Al Ajami and other humans being repressed and denied the right to speak their truth.
