Separate/Separate

Mother conjured me as an adjective

   before she verbed me:



as disconnected (placenta notwithstanding)

as discreet (thinking I would never tell)

as distinct (in the way the outlines drawn

  around a victim of mayhem are distinct)

as free-standing but who among my kinfolk

  was ever truly free—



Or maybe my first mother just chose:

   to disentangle

   to sever my limbs from her torso

   to sunder, let go, let God (that bitch)



See literature & law, how they enshrine dichotomy:

   A Separate Peace

   separate but equal



while some musicians propose a different riddle.

See: A Tribe Called Quest’s Separate/Together

where we stand great among creation—



the process of bringing someone into existence—

the polar opposite of unmaking by separation—



the etymology made manifest as separaten circa 1425

just about the time the Portuguese began to traffic



in snatching the Fula and the Wolof, asleep in the teel.

Is this how the art of our disjoining became so popular



that now it’s not extraordinary to remove pearls from

the oyster, to poach an elephant’s tusk for her ivory?