for taking our sneakered feet into your deep, soft sand making perfect swirls letting us trace and trample
for the one and only cactus lodged in my back I’ll take it for the dancers so they can be brave and burn and turn inside out and gaze honestly into the lens
we did our work on the land in the land atop the salt scraping our palms rolling as Alison stepped sweetly over me enormous salt rocks talking to the flesh of my back Shostakovich on the nearby record player inside of which a poltergeist kept quiet and let us have our accompaniment, a tiny battery said yes you need more than 15 minutes of power you need power forever you need Nina Simone’s ‘Wild Is the Wind’ I’ll join with the wind
for the butterfly that let its reflection meet Alison’s atop the salt pool Gwynn, Barry and I watched it flutter along the water top wondering if the camera could see
for the dove that sat on the power line at dawn with us as we pounded our frozen feet into awakeness on the side of Amboy Road
“Are you famous??”
internal body mind meets external skin clothing sand sign lone mushroom cactus broken window detritus camera house frame road sky vastness this body I am dancing in and dancing with who is all the time responding listening, not waiting, fumbling to find one another to find the camera
sometimes we are a trio that has no boundaries sometimes all we do is get in each other’s way I killed the mushroom the moment he said “Rolling!” I cried before dusk in the endless sand lot outside Casa Agave out to nobody this dance is the answer that speaks no answers that lets itself be a container for who we are where we are that goes on. we rest but the dance goes on.
Unprocessed Video Still: Taso Papadakis
