by: Claire Wahmanholm
Lullaby with Daughter Cells
Embedded, the sleeping body is ship and shipwreck, reef, fish den,
oyster nest, once my own anemone, once a wish,
transmission of ten thousand trillion divisions, so almost infinite,
so infinitely far from it.
Beneath the skin, repetition churns
its whirls of fingerprints and strands of future selves,
constructing endless daughters, endless spindles, endless paths
into the woods.
Sleep passes for safety, but is only a curse’s deferral,
never its breaking. Your body’s already a whir, was always
an engine, gendered and generative, her from the first. All I gave
you was a pair of points. Sleep between them for as long as you can.
oyster nest, once my own anemone, once a wish,
transmission of ten thousand trillion divisions, so almost infinite,
so infinitely far from it.
Beneath the skin, repetition churns
its whirls of fingerprints and strands of future selves,
constructing endless daughters, endless spindles, endless paths
into the woods.
Sleep passes for safety, but is only a curse’s deferral,
never its breaking. Your body’s already a whir, was always
an engine, gendered and generative, her from the first. All I gave
you was a pair of points. Sleep between them for as long as you can.
Given
A point is that which has no part
—Euclid, Elements, Book I
—Euclid, Elements, Book I
A given
is always
is always
a point
of departure,
of departure,
a puncture,
origin of
origin of
a wound,
some newness.
some newness.
For example,
this given:
this given:
that points
are partless,
are partless,
when really
they’re couple-
they’re couple-
numbered, binary;
the way,
the way,
no matter
how fast
how fast
it flies,
a bluebird’s
a bluebird’s
blue can
never outstrip
never outstrip
its bird,
or butter
or butter
drain from
its cup,
its cup,
rattle shed
its snake.
its snake.
What would
it do,
it do,
that bird—
unblue, unselved,
unblue, unselved,
blanched on
winter’s branch,
winter’s branch,
absent against
its white?
its white?
Without you,
I’m only
I’m only
the idea
of flight.
of flight.
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