The questions in this poem are directly from and adapted from questions Alixa Garcia posed in a workshop called "A Practice in Becoming Future Ancestors." This is a poem that emerged from my fingertips during the experience. Support Alixa by purchasing Otra Onda Viene; 50% of profit from this print will go to Mujeres Amazónicas.
Be like the ocean
A giant wave of blue and green
Crystal Clear against a bright sky
Sweeping away what did not serve us
Be like a shooting star
Across a purple sky
Find your place
Tell your story
Expand.
The whole universe is bigger than you
Heal.
There's nothing more important than that
When you are an ancestor
And you look back
What did you do to heal this lineage?
What did you do to heal this body?
What did you do to heal, communally, and community?
What did you do to heal the collective?
The intergenerational trauma?
Wisdom from streams
From burning wood
From smoke
From slowness.
From sunlight dancing on a dock
From cats stretching slowly in the sun
You built it
Together
A different life
A different way of relating
Of existing
Of prioritizing
Of remembering stillness
Be like a Lotus
Expand.
Drink in light
Close when you need to
Say a blessing into the universe
Rise and fall with the tide
You cannot control it.
Laugh with your ancestors, blood or chosen
At the absurdity of it all
Laugh with family
Those with whom you've endured hard times and relationships
See them dance and play in the waves
Make time for play
Don't do too much
Don't do everything
The answers will come
or my abbreviated version:
Be like the Ocean
Rise and Fall with the Tide
You cannot control it
The answers will come
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