body of War

After Piggyback Ride by Lisa Yuskavage

 

We are giants escaping from a burning world

 

My face is torn

Or maybe it is the military planes

From ash veins, my vantage,

 

I don’t know where your body ends 

and my dying begins.

 

You are one of many women, I know

Yet you are singular

Yet we are dual

 

Fire calves from its conquest and becomes mother matter

Your chest collides with the sea

 

In the light between your legs

Our city

The war

 

If they looked at this moment

They might only see smudged words

And not the flushed light emanating from the canvas 

your skin has become

for them 

 

to draw war plans

 

to claim as uninsured damage

In the “climate controlled” terrarium

they have remarketed our home to be

 

Carry me

 

Fire-whisperer

Refuge flee

 

On the broken back of your grief outstretched

From past

 

dead loves

 

Let me see your leaving body with unpolluted eyes

Let War’s iron always fail to grip

 

The light and shadow of your hair

 

About the Poem:

Last September, I was in New York City for a climate summit when a friend and I spontaneously decided to go to the Morgan Library & Museum.  We wandered into a small room.  I felt a gravitational pull.  Piggyback Ride by Lisa Yuskavage called to me with quiet power, seeming to emanate from the charcoal-hued walls.  Instantly, I pulled my pocket-sized notebook from my bag and began to write.  “body of War” is the story I saw in Yuskavage’s piece.  I hope it resonates in our war-torn world today.

About the Poet:

Josselyn Wolf is an eighteen-year-old artist, activist, and story-seeker whose passion is rooted in climate justice, social justice, and the power of stories to inspire change.  A poet, playwright, songwriter, actor, and filmmaker, Josselyn’s latest projects include an in-progress ecofeminist poetry collection, Mother Matter, an upcoming short film documentary, Regeneration: A Story of Women, Climate, and the LA Fires, and a recently released song “Guardian Guide.” She currently serves as the Youth Poetry Ambassador of Rhode Island. To see more of her work, you can visit her website at josselynwolf.com/.