Body Encounters Barrier, or Stairs (Not a Metaphor)

^{for CJ Rosenquist}

               In the current, secretly intentional, house

          there is: cope

     with condition itself (cannot be

underestimated). There is

               Barrier. There is encountering

          Barrier. There is struggle

     to negotiate Barrier, while being

watched. There is kindly-meant offer

               to help (almost always

          appreciated). There is kindly-meant, but

     no-asking first “help”

that often involves non-consensual

               touch. There is hyper-visibility     of Body

          and in-visibility of person-

     hood (a neat paradox

conjured by inaccessibility). There

               is: don’t observably feel anything,

          about any piece, which equals choke

     down snake of shame, muscle

grown in the jungle of un-

               intentionality. There is, during all:

          cheerfully, patiently, what is apparently un-

     fruitfully educate, while “performing”

Disability in public.

Go ten clicks, repeat. But

when the roof, walls, windows,

when the floor, floorboards, foundation,

when the cup of land

that holds house is

love, is welcome, when the nakedly

intentional shelter

is access, for body,

disability, and/or Black, Brown,

Trans, Nonbinary,

Queer, Muslim, fat,

elder, child, carbon-based

and breathing, valued simply

for being, and never demand

for government document,

there is no Barrier,

no encounter of

it, no being watched,

only aid, consent,

no shame, never blame.

Visibility, right-sized, equals

neighbor, not snake,

repeat of this life is clean

skate on frozen lake.

Imagine, the beloved who needs

assistance vacuuming saliva

from her mouth always

has a willing hand

holding hose, back-up

heart, whose intention is

set on weatherproof

interdependence.

This is the house,

the land, the world

of access, of welcome,

of here, you belong here.