field notes from north georgia, on the other side of totality [melissa word]

Our final contributor of eclipse-themed work is Melissa Word, an Atlanta-based dancer, choreographer, and educator. Melissa is a brilliant and playful artist, concocting shapes, ideas, and experiences across mediums, formats, and spaces. Her poem challenges us to look upward and inward, which is the best note we can imagine ending on.

We are grateful to the month’s artists for their generosity and spark, to fLoromancy for having arms wide enough to hold so much, and to everyone who spent time with these artists and their ideas.

Jess Bernhart and Scott Collison

---

she came thru

mowing across the thick of august

our bodies in the path buzzing

in peculiar anticipation

of this lunar union, celestial reckoning

she came thru charging,

full bodied a single breast hanging

heavy orb, gracious and steady

holy rollin

a slow plow through business as usual

swath cutting, portal opener

the sealed edges of something come loose,

tomb or womb

a membrane crossed for 2 minutes

and 34 seconds by the clock’s call

while our bodies calibrated a secret time

we were frozen

levitating

paralyzed in an ecstatic moment of cognitive rupture

sunflares teeming around a bold black face

making visible what is always there but never seen

on the other side we weren’t the same

she came thru clear and unwavering in her message

a clarity measured for our north american eyes

the sky our mirror

as above, so be it below

a total eclipse of our brightside selves,

the sociable radiance we work to put on

to be likeable and warmly received

she came thru with a prudent urgency

imploring each of us to consider our shadow selves

an arresting reminder

that we are not separate from what we keep in the dark

| all content is property of the artist |