April 7, 2023
Audio
Between Skin and Spine
By Atena O. Danner
View full text below.
Between Skin and Spine
By Atena O. Danner
What I make possible goes unseen
Holding this whole together with fat, water, and dust, I roll across this body like an ocean.
I know every inch of you, of your power.
I cannot hold you, but I carry your message
I am grateful for how you hold us; I hope you are held as well.
I am our very beginnings. Spiral connection to the cosmos unfurling
Out of the ocean and through the days: I am our through-line. I need help to carry some of this weight; I need to release some tension.
So close yet I cannot touch you.
I know what it means to be caught in the crossfire; I see you
contorted on a complicated rack, grace overwhelmed by
carelessness Thank you for the ways you’ve carried…
take some rest.
Who would I be without you?
I’m grateful for your direction.
You couch your gratitude in a pointless question. Thank you for your protection.
I am grateful for your skillful translation.
Thank you for your electric gifts.
I tell you what’s happening; you tell what it means—
No! My work is to define; meaning is much more than zeroes and ones;
Context and texture: you give the living worth
of ‘abrasive’ and ‘cool’ and ‘softly’ and ‘searing,’ Fact into story and lyric.
I am honored to share your poetry; Thank you for the music you create.
Atena O. Danner
Atena O. Danner is a cultural worker who imagines Black liberation, engaged in boundless curiosity. Her poems cover topics including neurodiversity, human connection, and collective liberation, published online, in anthologies, and in her own book of poetry. Her features include reading for Guild Complex Presents Exhibit B series, Chicago Poetry Center’s Poetry on the Green and the annual Brooks Day celebration in Chicago. In their home near the traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires and of the Menominee, Miami and Ho-Chunk nations, Atena lives with her partner, pets and 2 free Black children. Her first poetry collection, ‘Incantations for Rest’ was awarded a Nautilus Silver Award for poetry in 2023.
Image description: Atena, a dark-skinned Black woman wearing dangly gold earrings, dark red lipstick and a black and white jacket, is pictured with her eyes closed and smiling in front of a background of blurry green trees.