Two Poems by Vanessa Huang
voice of hunger
Dear Adrienne,
The moment of change . you honor. ripples me . in bittersweet wonder—. the great dark birds the uncertain moment. of history screamed and plunged . year after year. on the mass grave . of revolt each moment of choice. into our personal weather . as I honor the we I long and listen for— . the lives today’s we has lost and stolen— . the taste we’re left with— our imperfect . kinship— . Among these poembody waves They were headed somewhere else but In your gift of burning . their beaks and pinions drove the search for our free verses . along the shore— . you choked on the taste of bread in North America, through rages of fog
. stressed the taste of hunger seizing your own. . I wonder how you repossessed the fibrous I'm alive . to want more than life body of our outlawed . and invisible flame and fury, inhabited aliveness . enough to write . through the poison and joy . in each huddling hunger . for liberation— . there are so many prisons, so many silences— . I wonder how your want it for others starving and unborn . longed and feared the repossession
. to name the deprivations by all women . of this passion to be . inscribes her body, so many deaths forbidding
. fabric of a crossfire resistance . breaking terror’s isolation—
How did our angry desire . Swathed in exhaustion of your shadowmemory hollow, trampled— . quiver alone beneath cisgender . wo- . men shields,
the bitter, dead child from the camera— . wordless— where we stood, saying I— . What kept this starved song hostage?
. And you remind us—
Until we find each other, we are alone.
After Adrienne Rich’s “Hunger” for Audre Lorde, with language borrowed from Adrienne Rich’s poetry, interviews, and translation of Francisco Alarcon’s poetry.
3/30/12
Queen of All Churches
. for Marsha P
holy hymn you a bodhisattva spirit never laughs at me patron saint of the sidewalk Valentine of Village street queens and Paloma’s childhood kitchen you bodhisattva catch and weave sleep at the movies
lost flowers into priestess
you crown us wonderful
mornings. teach us to spare change
and glimmer brooches
currency of living without
agenda. the world your art form
house of stars you make with Sylvia. daily offerings to Neptune’s river. still nurse our spirit
open the police chief’s heart disarm all the insults in the liberated glory
you’ve bequeathed us. bodhisattva
how do you magic
the rage of childhood
rape. and scalding water into love. bodhisattva how do you ritual the changing of linens
genius sickness to loving closer and closer
bodhisattva fragile queen queen of dignity
Saint Marsha singing us alive in divine wreath of stage mirrors
teach us your sacred generosity how you shower us with love perform religious rites
even at the river of time even after how many years even at this river who sorrows
we find you again
and again we find you. river
queen of daffodils who
swim . swim . swim
we carry you to your river Hudson while the river cop gives us the street saying
Marsha was a good queen we carry your tomorrow give you back to us river
we who whisper your river we who hear your whisper we whose eardrums river
back to the river fragile queen who free us queen of dignity
holding court. you river queen
water who feed our dying
flames
queen of lamé
we dress you
in love. even as you river and
float . float . float
you hymn freedom dreams sewn in velvet and glitter you dress us in life
2/12/13
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Vanessa Huang weaves poemsongs with moments of creative aliveness and transformative encounter, color, and texture in call and response with kindred spirits who dream and make worlds where each and all of us are free. A finalist for Poets & Writers’ 2010 California Writers Exchange Award, Vanessa’s poetry and practice inherit teachings from the prison abolition, migrant justice, gender liberation, transformative justice, disability justice, and reproductive justice movements.
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