My Airs

By Elizabeth Mudenyo 
Within and Without curated by Sarah Edo
Inspired by 'Surma Woman’ by Shannon Weston
Featuring works and words by Chiedza Pasidonodya, Laneigh Ramierz, Rahel Elias and Sarah Edo

What lines between what 
bore me and what I became 

I am of someone blood
-line and unbound

I had mistaken my body 
before for

a moulding a space 
around  

the same way a table 
is a building

doing the work of standing
a four-legged creature

and then object by object 
it gets its story

from its earthly matter 
water, air and time to shape 

my making cannot 
contain me

celeste and hot footed  
I cannot be had

volcanic ash marks
nomadic birth

fire solidifies 
its final form

land rendered me
rich and hued

coffeed me black 
once iron now ochre 

hear what cradles me 
with its name

each ancestor awake
reached down

the spoon of open palms
shielded diaspora 

tears of my eyes became 
my eyes

before seeing knowing 
curled my nostrils

you milk and animal 
feed on everything

bones laboured to 
behold you

ligaments torn for me
-mories massaged in

feet heeled danced 
on my collar

oh, my mouth choirs
of other mouths 

lips imprint my forehead 
cheeks chin a blushing  .

holy, have you been 
loved today? flowered?

heightened by the stroke 
of your neck

let breath be a liquid
run from

the vessel leaking 
sunshine

a lacquer a liquor 
smooth swooning

unearth what we desire 
our primary longings

an amorous God
adorned unsorry

I am within you now

ultimately, surrender
In this release 

reaching home I put 
a braid around it

putting my senses back
together

the burning patterns
repeat

spiritually intimate
air of my belonging

my kin infinite
otherwise, offbeat

Elizabeth Mudenyo is a Scarborough-based poet, community-engaged artist and arts manager. Elizabeth is a fellow of The Watering Hole and the Poetry Incubator. She was a participant of the Hurston/Wright Poetry Weekend with Danez Smith and Diaspora Dialogues Short Form Mentorship with Olive Senior. Her work has appeared in Write Magazine, Arc Magazine, The Ex-Puritan, Canthius, CV2, and elsewhere. Her poetry chapbook, With Both Hands, was published through Anstruther Press. She is an MFA Candidate at the University of Guelph.  www.elizabethmudenyo.com

Visit Within and Without exhibition page.