– after Wangechi Mutu’s “She Walks”, 2019
(red soil, charcoal, paper pulp, wood, and synthetic hair)
honey, she tells me, you’re gonna disco
with a gas mask on. look at that platform
shoe on you. no matter your other foot’s
cloven. our bones are made of wood to
remind us to give the trees their due
respect. we’re branches and paper pulp.
always were. next time you go outside,
listen to the leaves–that’s your soul moving
windward. but now’s the time to
do the Bump, the Latin Hustle; shake that
fly winged cape of yours, fringe so long
it sweeps the floor. and let me tell you about those
knees–they don’t ever need repair. no disco
biscuit ever did that. can’t you feel the music
stepping up your pulse? you go ahead and
strut. that’s the way. never been a better time to
stay alive and rock a catsuit. and when we’re
good and done with this dance floor light show,
these mirror balls in which there is no end,
let’s go check out that reactor leaking through
the ceiling once again–if it’s a quick fix or a pipe
that needs to be snaked. before the temperature
drops. before the sadness sets in.
—Cintia Santana (The Missouri Review)