BLACK FOREST

FRANKIE DRAYUS

 

I saw a woman move like a plant 
Pushing herself through the soil
There was no soil only air she 
Blunted herself though its granular dirt
I saw a woman move like an ocean 
No—a leaf of seaweed in the tide
Undulating I understood the word at last
She undulated bonelessly
Then she poured herself beneath red felt
She poured herself across a scuffed floor
I backed against the wall I thought my shoes might get wet
She was a seaweed fan she was a faceless 
Feminine she was a shoot a tendril a
Determined determination
I saw a woman move like the opposite of Fate
There were ice white bodies in red dresses 
I had to imagine their hands their feet their eyes
They were not blind they were eyeless
There is a difference it is spreading like water  

          I saw a woman in a balaclava 
          She pierced me then pulled a red thread
          Through her entry an echo there was no wound
          There was no exit

 

(for Kelly Nipper and Marissa Ruazol)

 
 

"Intersections and horizon lines have fascinated me for as long as I can remember. I don’t accept “either/or” without “and” – I’m fiercely non-binary, so Alice Fulton’s idea of Thirdness resonates with me. This poem happened because I found myself situated at a multidimensional intersection thanks to the remarkable Marissa Ruazol dancing through/under/against Kelly Nipper’s wonderfully strange art installation, Black Forest, at the Hammer Museum. My body and its placement in the space affected where the boundaries were and how the dancer moved. So did tables, fabrics, and sandbags, which I mention because her eyes were covered so she had to “see” with her other senses. Movement and what I thought were its possibilities changed, as did how I think about being alive. And so."

Frankie Drayus has past work in temenos, POOL, [out of nothing], Poemeleon, Ninth Letter, diode and elsewhere. She received an MFA from NYU. From 2008-12, she co-curated T H E T H I R D A R E A, a reading series at an art gallery in Bergamot Station. She is a proud survivor of the 3:15 Experiment. She lives in Los Angeles, CA.