Pearl Button

lune /-/ aria

Identity is a singular
identity is a noun
          because of this 
          it is something 
           [some thing] 
the child does not understand.

| for example |

sometimes s/he feels like an ocean of words
__not gazing out to sea__
but that s/he is we
morphemic liquid drops
phonemic swirls
a syntactic sea

          in this ] moment [
     or series of [them] 
of s/he and me and we and i
or even us and us and us and





{definition:
the state or fact of remaining the same one or ones, as under varying aspects or conditions
}





we have 
nothing, neither, nor
how many times has the child gone here before
wheels of this identity-cart running
seed-heads flat into mud

[ us          _ a construct, of i? and I? and we?, and 

life is peeling in at least one ]





green long knife shredded cuc
umber
curls of carrot mock the sun

a buffalo calf with barbed wire in its stomach
a red deer fawn in bent grass 
oh to lie down in the green sun
the moon cool under our neck
and silently
sleep

our skins ebbing lune /-/ aria 
seed pods under winter 
rain


If identity is multiplicitous, then how

{definition:
the condition of being oneself or itself, and not another
}











can i or I be a one | self 

when some days

water reaches; words rise; 
waves crest; meaning shines; 
clear drops which don't break down__

silvered, black-night-backed .. all of them
       __              me 


these liquid days : i and me roll endlessly
all is shifting a-lingual adoration
a sounding, slap, a saline rush










{definition:
condition or character as to who a person or what a thing is
}

and who is me 
[and                      ]





where can s/he | it |we go
pulling our skins behind us

not the seabed nor the shore
that lithic body, sea-skinned
and the child

green tattoos
its oblivious texts__









when the fawn floats by on a calf skin
current been driven by dark earth
a far mountain, and the rain coursing
through flattened forests                                                               only such

perceptual limitations__the sea refusing
to see the slow shift of crust
the tilt of the deep earth hand in which it laps__
only such
is the thing
i might call me



{definition:
the state or fact of being the same one as described
}


                                                                                          because of that

words might rise but no ground
will present its industry - rhetorical
and somatic, fjords act
only as impediment to the loquacious sea

mountains and the worn salt
of life long gone to sleep 
old rock riven down to water 
through lithic parameters

these
are cordoned off from awareness' self obsession

such a simple thing__ 
to be a me living__
                                                                                             a curved line 
oblivious to the presence of its articulated sphere









{definition:
the sense of self, providing sameness and continuity in personality...
}

life is {not} peeling away, but [identity {is questionable}                 ] 
           (CUCUMIS MELO)
           (CUCUMIS SATIVAS) 
           (DAUCUS CAROTA)









{definition:
...in personality over time and sometimes disturbed in mental illnesses, as schizophrenia
}







There are days i am a bamboo child
an opalescent it, lashed with vegetative
sinew ___ a raft on the sea of me


hollow canes occasionally 
sprouting green leaf lances
                                                                                           earth-pungent 
: 
                                                                                   this is the uncurling

—another moment 
—another self





{definition:
...to define...
}



define we:  
               AUSTRALOPITHECUS AFARENSIS

reaching land the fawn rose__blade & sheath lay down 

               HOMO ERECTUS

on the earth to sleep

               HOMO NEANDERTHALENSIS

it was the future then__leaping to the trees

               HOMO FLORESIENSIS

shaking bracts, fluttering silver down 
to the soil

: 

17,000 years ago Toba erupted and you, H.F. all died

now we search for your lost teeth 
so we can know 
how much of you is seeded 
in our cells




{definition:
...define a...
}


we are 
               : the fawn_our round wheels
press down a curved track_

               : grass beaten down & our hips which
press with ardor against the soil

               : the skinned calf
tipping and tilting 
on the swirl of time and buoyant words 

               : the few moments of lucid dream 
those long marine watchful hours 

               : coming untied 
bamboo dust 
dissolving in salt water 












{definition:
...a hominid...
}


what are words but hollow reeds
some pale raft of meaning 
just a little nick against the i-threads 
joining letters and the words 
fall a-
               -part__meaning 
dissolves

and yet
those curved/carved moons of the corporeal

_ the material 
                         parantheticals _ 

between which this thought road runs

they bear it the child
you & we
i & me












{definition:
...hominid is...
}


the skinned calf lumbers
to land__spits
the barb__begins to redress

its skin remembering 
elbow__knee 
& soft-pouching 
welcome

and where our wheels run
sweetgrass necks lean 
cool against the sky

[TO ACKNOWLEDGE: the image of the calf with the barb comes from the poet Henry Real Bird; the calf is also present in Erin Mouré's The Unmemntioable; definitions come from dictionary.com]

Pearl Button is a writer, photographer and artist based in West-coast Canada. She has a long history with Western Magical Practices including alchemy, tarot and dream work. Her strong preference for secularism has influenced her understanding of these esoteric studies. She makes much of her art, whether image or word, based on the cognitive dissonance this creates.
 
 
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