EXCERPT FROM “UNDROWNED: BLACK FEMINIST LESSONS FROM MARINE MAMMALS”

BY ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS

What I want to say to you requires a more nuanced field of receptive language. It requires me to reshape my head, my entire body, the very capacity to breathe deeper than I have ever breathed [before]. Sonic systems are more needed than visual information. So I will close my eyes and ask for you to do the same if you feel comfortable, as I recite these words: Here is all of me, and here we are. Here.

Here in this blinding presence. A constantly moving world. Here.

Humanity listening towards home. An offered presencing here. This poem is for you. Here, right here. A turbid life. Yes. And here. All here. Here we go.