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.