I belong to this moment

(a flamenco slam poetry percussive piece for imprint 2024)

I belong to this light

I belong to this floor

I belong to all of you

I belong to this moment

I belong to this beat

I belong to these bones…each one

I belong to this hip

I belong to this movement

I belong to this heart

I belong to this chest

I belong to this profile…with the nose of my grandmother

My grandmother

I belong to bloodways

The salty mediterranean basin, the baltic blue

The wild whitehorse rapids of the Yukon River that carried the news of my birth north

I belong to my mother

My father

My son

I call him sunstar

I belong to stardust

I belong to this sudden gust of hope.

For him, for us all

I also belong to this wave of fear

I belong to this dizziness

I belong to this displacement

I belong to a traveler lineage hidden in the back of my grandfather’s throat

I belong to outcasts and wanders

I belong to the road… the animate road

I belong to my ancestors who whisper & guide in vapor & flame

I belong to the tree I pray with, to the cove I sing with

I belong to the song of the hummingbird

I belong to this fate, to this print

I belong to the imprint on the earth & human hearts

I belong to the sweat of my labour

To this dirt under my nail

To these hands…. that look like the hands of my father

I belong to this moment

We belong to this moment

I belong to this weaving.

I belong to this land but this land does not belong to me

I belong to this land but this land does not belong to me

I belong this question

I belong to this rupture

I belong to this land but this land does not belong to me

I belong to this question