Paths form memory past memory, / time immemorial yet here material: a living tapestry draped / to the mantle from the sky. And through this organ, breathing: // a cut, a slice, a wound. Severing the spawning streams, the falcon’s / fields and beaver ponds—even the cliffs—a highway drives / into the woods.
That moment always stands out to me as when I first realized that fighting my fatness was the thing keeping me from power, not being fat. Being “obese” wasn’t causing my health issues or preventing me from doing what I loved: it was doctors refusing to listen to me and extreme dieting that was hurting my body.
Because so much of patriarchal culture writes off any nurturing type of love as femininity or as lesser, it’s easy (and strongly encouraged) to hear “the way men love” as an oxymoron, or as a warning. But there’s also something so sweet about the love that startles through that expectation, that blooms regardless and despite it. The love that forgets to introduce itself.