Sunday, January 3, 2010

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

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