Naomi Ortiz

 

Saucy Berry Portal 

On nights when sticky sweat glues skin to kitchen chair neighbors scream ceiling fan wobbles and screeches empty fridge except hard limes and two lonely carrots I pull out saucy berry from its little plastic drawer and wish nail polish was a portal to leisure With one swipe of color I would be perfectly perched on lounge chair transported to where glossy magazines distant waves lap the shore electric powered fan lazy twists gentle 85° air and the label’s directions — avoid heat or flame — could be followed to a T balance heart shaped nail stencil on middle finger little dab of “get to it” silver sparkles when middle finger hovers just above the others is a Crip flip-off, with love here people know me how my hand and body move charmed by my sass clear coat protects this paradise music bumps from speakers hip dip and thrust shoulder finds the beat late night dance floor accessible wheels spin and roll fingers illuminated bright red to better show contracture and calluses of which I’m not ashamed something about the shiny color makes me optimistic like I don’t live in a world where I am never expected no accessible parking hot slow-motion trample with condescending eye treated like an object stepped over pushed off to the side where Crip flip-off is only raised fist

Catalina  

on my desk traipses with nothing but cold calm assurance across on top of keyboard 478 ?????????????????????????? z5\\\ I barricade her wandering with arm water bottle sticky note booby-traps adhesive side up ignore: licks to fingertips cold nose on arm loud sniffs tail smack into my ribs a steady drum with squinty eyed look of disdain a slow deliberate step quick flick of paw triggers avalanche of all the important papers notebooks crash to the floor startle response scamper tufts of hair fill the air waft in s l o w p l u m e s Catalina sashays just out of reach wants my attention launches herself between my face and the screen backs up booty butt hole to the camera when I’m nervous and on an important video call thin black and white body becomes stone weight she knows Crip arms can only push, not lift takes full advantage cat vs Crip body stalemate until decidedly bored notices pen perched an inch off the edge with one paw smack writing utensil catapults airborne cartw h e e l t w i r l sparkles in afternoon light lands with clatter cat body already in motion to pounce

 

 



Naomi Ortiz is a Poet, Writer, Facilitator, and Visual Artist whose intersectional work focuses on  self-care for activists, disability justice, climate action, and relationship with place. Ortiz is the  author of Sustaining Spirit: Self-Care for Social Justice (Reclamation Press), a non-fiction book  exploring self-care tools and strategies for diverse communities. Their new poetry/prose  collection, Rituals for Climate Change: A Crip Struggle for Ecojustice (forthcoming Punctum  Books), explores how climate change impacts relationship with place, expands on and  complicates who is seen as an environmentalist, and reimagines what being in relationship with  the land can look like. Ortiz is a Zoeglossia Poetry Fellow whose poems have been nominated for Best of the Internet, listed on Entropy’s “Best of 2020-2021: Favorite Poems Published Online,” and appear in a variety of publications, anthologies, and performances. Ortiz is a Disabled Mestizx living in the Arizona U.S./Mexico borderlands. Website:  www.NaomiOrtiz.com


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