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Sierra DeMulder, performing at Camp Bar in Minneapolis, MN.
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Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry.
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Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)
00:05
blackberry briar hunters daughter ocean
00:10
I’d mermaid when my sister needs to talk
00:15
I extend my arms towards her like a
00:18
child asking to be held i turned my
00:22
palms upward as if donating blood and
00:25
let her empty the contents of her day on
00:28
me the words file out orderly at first
00:32
and then a swarm spilling over me like
00:36
soft swell of a mushroom cloud until I
00:39
do not remember where I begin and her
00:42
need ends once I held a brand new baby
00:47
in my arms three weeks old naked as
00:50
truth comes she felt so small her
00:53
heartbeat a moth i trapped between my
00:56
palms this is how to love the healing if
01:00
my sister’s eating disorder were a
01:04
person it would be a teenager by now I
01:07
imagine it door knobs for knees long
01:11
graceful fingers like the legs of a
01:14
ballerina the beaks of cranes it would
01:16
have a favorite book a locker
01:18
combination a best friend her I tell her
01:21
I won’t let her sleep in my house if she
01:22
left it sleep over I tell her I can’t
01:25
see it but I know it’s there I tell her
01:27
nothing and just let the cloud of her
01:30
day rise like dough milkweed woman had a
01:33
comb breast this is how to love the
01:35
healing to be not the sound but the
01:38
receptacle to be not the therapist but
01:41
the stop after to be not the blank
01:43
canvas to be not the paint not even the
01:46
sweat of creativity but to the via the
01:49
bed the artist crawls back to tonight I
01:53
rub my sister shoulders my thumb’s
01:56
mistake her back for the staircase in
01:58
our childhood home she tells me that she
02:01
is scared that the waves are rising and
02:03
the ship is begging to become driftwood
02:06
the hounds are howling tonight and the
02:08
moon is so full it could burst she tells
02:11
me that she has been symptom-free for
02:14
three weeks
02:17
three weeks it feels so small a whisper
02:23
a newborn a fluttering of smothered
02:26
wings but sister this is how to heal how
02:29
to get up again and again when the waves
02:31
come to retrain the hounds of your body
02:34
dragonfly child of stone and moss you
02:37
are dancing this dance you know by heart
02:39
you are crawling out from under yourself
02:41
spring drinker sack collector you are
02:43
drawing a map to forgiveness where you
02:46
live where you already are you just
02:47
don’t know it yet perfect isn’t where
02:49
we’re from and we wouldn’t like it there
02:51
anyway big sister little dipper who
02:53
taught me how to sing the way light
02:55
streams through a window how to live
02:57
boldly and without shame sister when we
03:02
were little I didn’t know what it was
03:06
like to face the dark twisting woods
03:08
behind our house alone when I think of
03:12
what courage is sweet sapling Falcon of
03:15
a woman I see your hand reaching back
03:18
from me leading me into the forest into
03:20
the unknown the steam of your shoulder
03:22
the horizon of your voice saying look
03:24
I’ve got you i’m here blackberry briar
03:27
gardener’s daughter you were born to
03:29
walk through this you were made to
03:30
travel that long journey into yourself
03:33
look into the distance I’m there if you
03:35
need me arms out ready to listen ready
03:38
to sing sweet sister I’ve got you I’m
03:40
here
03:46
you
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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