Poet of the Week: Cortney Lamar Charleston
In Theory, We Are All Human
Not a simple thing, no. Not to be taken lightly. To be
understood, and I do, that is, get the theory of you:
integral of human possibilities. The theory of your body
as a familiar machine, like mine, like something that
hums while it works a skin together where there had
been a rip before. The theory of skin, of its color
and discolor. The theory of your blood and bones,
like mine; your eyes and lashes, like mine; your nose;
your mouth, full of ocean, like mine. The theory
of freedom, which I take to be a naked feather,
dancing, almost like a hammock, back and forth, back
and forth in the passing wind. The theory of God
as asymptote and the theory of love as limit, the two,
tied together inside my head by a math problem.
The theory of law as inequality instead of equation.
The theory of a wedding dress and the theory of
a wedding dress on fire. The theory of binding breasts
like pages of a book needing to be read. The theory
of birth as death sentence. The theory of life as illness.
The theory of male and the theory of female and
the theory of neither and yet, still, this body, like mine,
graphed on so many dimensions. The theory of choice,
like reaching for an apple instead of an orange. The theory
of sin, like reaching for an apple. The theory of ribs
as prison bars. The theory of homelessness among
family. The theory of children who claim you, likewise,
as a blessing. The theory of your smile. The theory
of a rainbow after the storm, like the gift of a perfect
bridge over troubled waters. The theory of your hand
touching mine, incidentally, in the closet of a single
moment. The theory that one of us, in that moment
did not exist in our right mind. The theory of mind as
illness. The theory of choice, again, but for which of us
and what between? The theory of sex and sacred and
the hard, hard practice. The theory of you. The theory
of me. The theory of a good person and the truth of
a bad, though, in theory, I cannot say who or
won’t.
originally published by Fugue