(view original version of this piece.)
SEGMENTS OF MY WET, ANGRY SPINAL CORD
Slouched
over chilaquiles,
roadrunner
comes
full stop
revealing
a map
of Uelita’s softest
roots
whispy, forgotten
as I plant
my finger
and thumb
againstearth
this is
segunda-espina
my fears
are her fears
phobia comes from
phobus or panic
anger
takes root
in strangle,
some stop and hold
some stand
before the court
here is the
room
where
pig says
don’t move and
family history holds still
addiction
ends & my gambling
begins
coffee grounds tumble
from my eyes
I curve salt through
these glands
I pledge
to the judge’s robes
roadrunner
barks from some future
in which water is implanted, digitally enhanced
electronic
drip
spine
grinds
my temper
to
a pulp
along my back, grandmother draws
a map
without
country
without states, without lines, without oil,
with only memory & pleasure,
queering my body
WANT HIGHEST SETTING
tears
spit
un’drought
born again queer
clinically angry
lil crazy head locx en cabezx
bury me in
soft archive
moon’s teeth
speeding up
twist & knot
a fix of rust
of moss
a needle in a border
Materials & Notes:
Segments of My Wet, Angry Spinal Cord
Anatomical illustration of the spinal cord from Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, published
by The Williams & Wilkins Company, 1961. Photograph of smiling woman sitting on a
twin bed, wearing a hat and sunglasses is the artist’s maternal grandma, Uelita Becky,
1972. Film strip of a stairwell taken and processed by the artist, 2011. Map of Kern River
Oil Field in Bakersfield, CA; it is the third largest oil field in California.
want highest setting
Thread, needle, Lotto ticket, acrylics, Neighborhood Thrift tags, bread closure tabs,
general household trash, and image from James Tilly Matthew’s “Illustration of the
Airloom” (1810). Christmas Lotto ticket presumedly Grandma Toni’s as it was tucked
into her copy of Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary. James Tilly Matthew is
considered the first person with a documented case of paranoid schizophrenia.