on the beacon
We know ourselves as part and as crowd, in an unknown that does not terrify... Our boats are open, and we sail them for everyone.
—Edouard Glissant
a boat is for travel. travel
is a verb. a verb suggests
intention. in creole one
might say we go fa boat.
the boat is medium
from point A to B
***
from point A to point B a boat
may carry intention in this sense,
a boat can give a vision legs
***
in visions, my people travel by boat
sometimes, are carried. my people
are taken & carried from west africa
we cannot say precise origin
instead shape a sound [ ]
***
an origin may look like a pier
[an origin may sound like ocean]
a pier is where a boat comes to rest
[an origin may sound like ocean]
a pier is where a boat begins.
[an origin may sound like ocean]
[an origin may sound like ocean]
[an origin may sound like ocean]
[an origin may sound like ocean]
[an origin may sound like ocean]
[an origin may sound like ocean]
[an origin may sound like ocean]
**
was the boat their beginning?
did it tie intention to land?
loose others to the sea? what
were my people before
we were? did we become
by boat? [or perhaps
the sea moment after
ocean grand body
that fed itself to another ]
***
maroons fled by boat to st. vincent
where they heard Black people
lived free. here: a condition
outside slavehood and its logics.
garinagu on st. vincent lived
outside the nation-state. existed
how a large body
holds an/other
for each other. themselves. the land.
took in others also them
***
who is an/other
what body birthed through
our shared Black might flood
separate? are we not tied
by [ocean/body/sea
born from hurricane
a shipwreck’s kin
crawled from boat’s swollen
belly/or Blackness at it’s
bottom bedrock of water]
dock departure descent
mythology
[brother brushed his head]
from back to front. slow
as dad taught us. i watched
& readied for my turn. when
curls might bristle, refuse to give
don’t go out there looking like
any of the boys dad believed
us not to be & how he was
right in ways he’ll never know
all the boys who weren’t me
with hair in braids, in rows
gleaming. each one beautiful
enough to kiss
JR Mahung (She/They) is a Garifuna trans girl from the South Side of Chicago. She now lives in Boston, MA with her cat, Frank Ocean. JR’s chapbook “Since When He Have Wings” is available through Pizza Pi Press.