Lotion absorbs slowly - differently- into my hands these days. It's as if my hands have cloaked themselves in the questions of
Have you washed your hands for twenty seconds?
What have you touched?
Have you pulled on the pillars hard enough for this system to, at last, crumble and finally fall?
They are all important questions. They are all what is in the air while the lotion, reluctantly, starts its journey down into my skin. To dissolve deeply. To be absorbed and, slower these days, to disappear.
I wonder if the feeling of your fingers on my mouth
will ever be the same.
II.
I have been thinking about language again. There is this thing in ASL known as expansion. It is a linguistic trait of ASL that happens sometimes intuitively in a prediction of clarification, and other times, when an aspect of something is unknown or unfamiliar to the other person.
Either way, in the moment, it is a brief story or illustration that offers an image to meaning.
An example.
Suppose someone was not familiar with the sign for FIREFIGHTER You sign it. The person responds by saying "what's that?" to which you would respond (and here I am typing this how it might be signed. Keep in mind there is no written form of the language...) "You know: House, fire ; emergency; what do I do?! Truck red, sirens, speeding, arrives. water, hose big, spray water on house, fire disappear. Person who fire-on-house-spray-water-fire-disappear? Firefighter."
III.
Tonight I had long and energizing conversations with Xavi about the future, the past, ascension and simultaneous realities.
I also came to the conclusion/realization that literally the ONLY people who interrogate me about learning languages [why are you learning (insert language here)? what are you going to do with that? are you going to work for the U.N.?] are U.S. born white people.
No one else does this.
(pause)
My mouth may be bloodied but
the victory
will always be seen
in the earnestness in my eyes
and the shine of my blade.
be well; be loved,
k.
(image: Yuan Bo Chao By Nick Yang For Marie Claire China May 2020)
No comments:
Post a Comment