oriño ka-n-an manbo emalé
teach your daughters
to sing the song backwards
counterclockwise
wind in their mouths
teach them early
to breathe in the dust
swirl it into their lungs
teach your children
that the opposite of a secret
is a drink
teach them
by example
to drink air
*
send your daughters
where the earth is soft
they’ll come back
and tell you life is hard
send your daughters
off the planet now
show them how
to do their dirt
in space
send your daughters
to the sky
for clay
practiced as they are
at leaving earth
teach your daughters
that the only world they’ll have
will be the one they shape
by hand
and foot
*
train your daughters
how to dance in mud
cleanse them
of the myth
of solid ground
show them that
the mark they make
is evidence of body
not of word
is evidence of soil
and not of breath
teach your daughters
how to outrun death
Copyright © 2024 by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on February 22, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.
“oriño ka-n-an manbo emalé literally means ‘the road of the women who went to fetch clay,’ the road of souls or the Milky Way. The story is that the women went to the sky to fetch the clay (with the help of a shaman under the direction of the chief) and left their footprints on the way back, but also never made it back. One version says the women were caught up in a storm. This poem came from my process of honoring my ancestors by relearning astronomy from an Indigenous Caribbean perspective. In the process, my entire understanding of what it means to be a daughter has changed.”
—Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a queer Caribbean poet, independent scholar, and activist.