La Professoressa in Paris, 2009 and in my Life, 1998

I write of misused powers, of the hardening of the heart under the shadow of nationalisms, under walls of exclusion, but I also carry the voice of my lesbian body, of my lesbian histories, into all these stony places. On my desk amidst all the commuinques from Cairo, I found this poem, written by one woman to another.

Saftey

We have already travelled worlds together

in each other's curves and words

and hollows

although we only just met

We have already opened doorways

to knowledge and loneliness

and love

although we thought they had been closed with finality

We have already changed shape

to embrace unfamiliar waves and symbols

of desire

although we thought we knew who we were

We

two women together

have created the fragile shifting fragments of a refuge

in the midst of life's great dangers.

For Joan, 8 March 1998