what are your intentions, what do you give up. [day 3]

Serenade in exile 

I. 

One thinks this happens only 
to other people. I was a child

named unshakeable then.

Recognition poured holy in me
by a young mother’s chords.

I wear her bracelets now,
and a lovelier mane.

Crossing 23 planes to your bed,
fast as wheels can turn. 

Even if the Excelsior 
is no longer mine.

II.

Silver sardines for you.

Letters broke open for you.

Employment as lover-sentry, if given
raw pages as collateral.

Maybe the apocalypse will come tomorrow. 

So you can watch my ladyboy wit melt drones 
into plastic cars.

Call me your last best chosen one.

Let me be the first to feel the consequences.

Let me take on my birthright.

Constructed with words from Mourid Barghouti (via Ching-In Chen), Sarah Gambito, Kimberly Alidio, retrox06, Jai Arun Ravine, Samantha Chanse, Everything but the Girl, and Amy Winehouse. 

In this piece and yesterday’s (when I was too sleepy to Google the link, sorry), I had Elaine Castillo’s fantastic ‘Self-Portrait as Lancelot’ on my mind.

* * *

Prompts

From Ashes of Time Redux, 2008, d. Wong Kar Wai.

Sarah Gambito:   Words lead to deeds…. They prepare the soul, make it ready, and move it to tenderness. - Saint Teresa

Kimberly Alidio:   Suddenly, a gender/queer childless matriarch rules your family. 

retrox06:   We can’t become what we need to be by remaining who we are. -Oprah 

Jai Arun Ravine:   “When I was singing, all I could hear between the measures was silence—that inhuman silence, the silence of eternity. I often think I must have married that silence before I was born, in some past life perhaps. It’s my one passion, the meaning of my existence. My singing is an attempt to move it and change it, make it turn around and speak to me. My fans mean the world to me and I’ve dedicated my career to them, but I’d give it all up for a single moment alone with that silence, a single moment of recognition.” - Annika in Pamela Lu’s Ambient Parking Lot

Ching-In Chen:   Begin again - Baraka de Soleil 

* * *

Housekeeping

Please post in the comments section of this blog entry with: 1) your writing in response to today’s prompt and 2) a prompt or question to share for tomorrow.

And if the comments are down, feel free to send your work to arkipelagirl [at] gmail.com, and I’ll post for you when the comments are fixed. 

Full info on the process and this project can be found at this page. 

Dear Collaborators, if you’d like to get to know each other a little better, please send me your info and links so I can start a list on that there page to the left. 

And thank you so much for taking part in this project. I’m inspired and challenged by your words.