death inside the unfolding of love *
death as lover
(written frm the quantum viewpoint of myself - as much an incantation as it is a reflection)
when i greet death, i do it with love
i feel the widening weightlessness of my molecules
realizing i’ve just stepped out of the theatre
i glance behind me in an all-seeing moment at what is concluded
and all i can feel is love
for i saw death before
and did not run frm it or lie or die or try
to disappear
i sat with death
i sat with death as the grass dried
it’s brittle bones ever-slowly thinning to dust
watched it return to the earth, rest, to later
burst forth a sexual explosion of crimson, violet, & gold
i watched death as it laid onto the human body
slowly unsticking the energy frm matter
a felt moment of distinction -
i watched my love with death, still them
small first, then an explosion of energy, as a star
i met death in everymoment of shift n change and transformation
mourning first, dreading. then
unfurling to death in it’s erotic grief-filled splendor
giving myself with love, again and again to the void
releasing myself with gratitude, into whatever pleasure it could offer
when i meet death, i smile into its face
not with defiance, but with love
in erotic celebration of the evershifting molecules
that give rise to our perception of cycle
this sacred end that makes all beginnings possible
for in truth, i kno i am always living and dying
and have been living in love and loving in death for millions of moments before this one
feeling so versed and rehearsed, i do not know another way
to greet sweet death than w love
*when Alexis Pauline Gumbs answers Prentis Hemphill’s question of ‘where are we’, her answer is “in the unfolding of love”. this cuts to the feeling of being anywhere and within luv while fully acknowledging its fluidity & vastness. a thing i can feel and did not yet have words for. (frm an interview with Prentis on their podcast Finding Our Way.)
