I see the way their heads turn downwards
how their eyes roll sideways
when the water in me
speaks of brown womyn
how uncomfortable the salt
on their tongues only wanting sweet sweat
must taste
They did not come to listen to skulls
cracked and blooming
how they would answer
the flooding of daughters
bowing into the gods of themselves
a silent retribution
rises it is a tide of precision
breaking free from fever
when the world became hot
a halfway house made a home
like your mother’s disapproval
in your mouth
a lawless reckoning asking
radical love
to cleanse the palate
Crimson & Dirt
I asked my body, why the iron still drips? inconsistent. a mix of fresh and old. crimson and dirt. expelling. like a tomb is rising. or perhaps a miracle. or truth. the bathroom, a room of wondering. the same place I washed, and sang goodbye to you. a shower, the closest place for a baptism in the absence of an ocean. I want to ask my mama the same question I ask my body. but she will be forever gathering, trying to understand her own.
I want to flood, rushing to mother womb. but illness flipped our roles. I, womb for mother. I, child cradle mother. I, daughter mother for her mother. this is a sacred role. this is genesis of love. so, I am daughter child. hands searching for a mother hold. a safe place to breach. then flood safely.
I want to feel like a child. crawling to elders feet. to see worn hands reach down. lift me up. place me on their knee. hold me. head to concave chest. I want to whisper my questions to them. have their eyes give me guidance. I want to be close enough to be scolded. to feel the disapproval inspire me. then the moment they would say. home.
Grace Iwashita-Taylor breathes bloodlines of Samoa, England, and Japan, and is an artist of upu/words on the page, digital storytelling, and live performance, dedicated to carving, elevating, and holding spaces for storytellers of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. She is the recipient of the CNZ Emerging Pacific Artist 2014 and the Auckland Mayoral Writers Grant 2016, and was the visiting international writer in residence at the University of Hawaii 2018. She is the co-founder of the first youth poetry slam in Aotearoa, Rising Voices (2011 - 2016) and the South Auckland Poets Collective, and has published two collections, Afakasi Speaks (2013) & Full Broken Bloom (2017), with ala press. She is the writer of My Own Darling commissioned by Auckland Theatre Company (2015, 2017, 2019) and curator of Upu (Auckland Arts Festival 2020 & Kia Mau Festival 2021). She is currently working on her next body of work, Water Memories.
Please note that due to its formatting, ‘Flood’ is best viewed on a tablet or computer.