Oppression

We are an oppressive and oppressed people. And in each action there seems to be a lack of good and an overwhelming sense of insincerity. We are not a caring people. This is our triumph and bondage.
Slaves to our own uncause. We are turned inward like a rolled leaf, unable to take in sunlight. We have become dark. Not dark like the beauty of a night sky, but dark without light, dark without faith, dark without the need to aid others.
We are caught up in the meaninglessness of self-image and self-importance. We diet and run and try to lose weight while six-thousand children die from starvation each day. We are pathetic. Only we would gouge out our eyes and gorge our bellies and call it a day well spent.
Maybe a depression is what we need: a wake up call to our selfish ways. The depression won’t set us back—it will set us right. Bring it on. The faster the better.

Imitation of Yoko Ono

BALLOON PIECE
Use balloons for fish tanks. Put on display at the museum.
Spring 2009

CLOTHES PIECE
When you walk out into public, pretend that
None of your clothes match. Comment about your unfortunate situation.
Spring 2009

PIER PIECE
Tie a multi-colored piece of yarn around the base of the nearest pier. Imagine that the yarn is the only thing holding up the pilings.
Spring 2009



For Ono's work: http://www.borndigital.com/aaaa.htm

Untitled

First, what I’ll need you to do is calm down. Take off your watch and set it here. Now your glasses, fake nails, earrings, necklace, and your hair-tie. You will then proceed to take off your shoes, socks, take off your clothes, and walk right this way without embarrassment. You will feel the liquid sand sinking under your feet. The waves rush up to greet you, and it will feel cold at first. But as you walk forward, leave all your worthless possessions behind, you will feel the water becoming warmer. Warmer to you.
Now. Close your eyes and forget everything. No, I mean it: everything. The lies they whisper to you; the promises they never carry through with; everything that they’ve taught you. Good. Now—don’t stop breathing! Just because you forget all that shit doesn’t mean you stop breathing.
OK. I’m going to need you to continue to move forward. You will start to feel intimidated by how large the waves appear. But they’re not that big. You are not standing on the surface of the water next to the waves—that why they are overhead, over you. Come on! I’m not going to hold your hand through this: YOU wanted this!
It’s not going to be the speed of your walk, it is going to be the persistence with which you walk. Keep both feet on the bottom of the ocean and go. As your head is covered in water, it is natural to panic and try to swim—Don’t. Good. I’m going to need you to keep your eyes—both eyes—open. There, you see? They told you “you must have oxygen to survive”. They lied. You sought the truth though, didn’t you?
Excellent. You are almost done with the rehabilitation process. I need you to stop and stand where you are. Just where you are. Yes, that’s fine. Now, as your eyes are open, your feet are solid, and your hands are empty, I need you to feel whole. Not half-whole, not nearly-whole: Whole. I need you to focus in on you—what makes you you. Don’t even think about remembering the many thems. Think about you. Here. Now. There you go.
Choose the best answer to the following question:
“You” means what?
(a) A composite of what they have all said about you.
(b) A worthless assortment of atoms and shit.
(c) I am a strong woman who will stand, and be, and be whole.
Is that really your answer? Is that the answer you can freely choose now?
Now that you are standing naked, with solid feet, at the bottom of the ocean, eyes open, breathing in truth—you chose correctly. See.

What do you do now? I’m going to need you to live…

Colors of Gratitude

Despite my visit to the E.R. on the 22^nd, due to my passing out in Shakespeare class (1.5 hours after I gave blood), my being told I am anemic, iron deficient, I feel fantastic. I am a healthy twenty-two year old woman who cannot go a day without laughing.

I told Jesse, right after the appointment, that I was a little anemic. That night I watched Scrubs and a few other shows in the Community Building in the UVA with friends. We all drooled as commercial after commercial features Outback Steak House, and other steaky-places.

Jesse called me the next day and asked if I was hungry. I was. He picked me up and we headed West, but the restraint we were going to was not open yet. So we cruised around Petco, talking about what pets we had as children, and which ones we would never have as adults. As 4 o’clock rolled around we sat down at Black Angus, ate a four-course meal, and were we were so full the waitress let us sit around because she understood.

The best way to go about life is to never forget that it can all be swept out from under your feet in no time at all. I look around my bright orange studio; think about my purple Civic; the green-blue eyes of my love; the black ink of pens; and the smooth white of the calendar on my pull-out desk: and I understand that all the things I have, no matter where they stand on the color spectrum, are all precious things. I cannot take anything for granted because I have sworn not to. I refuse to miss something only after it is gone.

January was a good month, a solid moth that was laced with wind and the promises of lessons learned.

And there goes January. This Saturday went particularly fast as well—time must be speeding up.

I watched the sun cross the sky, descend with a smile, and color the sky like a blue honey-dew as it slid behind the horizon.

I am so happy. I am so content. I feel each day like a deep breath through my lungs.

This is bound to be my best (though last) semester ever.

"Eyeglasses"

It began with eyeglasses.
We began to see the flaws in our bodies.
The more we saw, the more we hated,
and the more we had to fix.
Fix my sight. Now my hair to match.
Now my skin, bronzed like gods.
Wasting away so we can show our waists.
We began to fix. Then we began to break.

Excessive, obsessive, oppressively taking
away from our bodies.
Our bodies. Our selves. Individuals selling
their images for a more
acceptable, seducible, inexcusable one.
It began with eyeglasses
and it won't end until we are completely blind.