Blossoming Through the Fence
"Chimera One"
After Sarah Ghazal Ali, “Matrilineage [umbilicus]”
the first inheritance a puncture wound:
enamel chipped, the teacup un-whole
my grandmother had a recycled rug
—next to the pantry covered with a blanket—
on her kitchen floor brown sugar
crystallized in the cotton ties
I remember flour on her forehead
sometimes I would crawl into the
cupboard unwrap the paper bag
—my hand, a sifter—
white smeared against my cheek
I didn’t know how to use a broom then
only knew cherry stem plucked from
the fruit cherry pit stuck in my teeth
"Chimera Two"
After Donna Spruijt-Metz, “Hoof”
Is it that I have had a richness
in this greenery, or an anguish
unspoken?
The dogwood blooms through
the left side of my body. I find
roots spreading instead of veins.
In a dream, I ask: where is home?
Fence lines wrinkle across my brow;
to unfurrow would be to completely
undo myself.
Through closed eyes I watch
my legs fold themselves. I tire of
the ribbon that ties together my intestines.
In my hair lives a tiny bird. It brings
an apple seed back to its nest. I hear
swallowing,
then quiet.
"Chimera Three"
After Carl Phillips, “Porcelain”
As when a long forgetfulness lifts suddenly, and what
we remember is the same was what we do not. The potted
plant on the windowsill no longer grows—only maintains—
and I am taught to do the same. There is a pomegranate,
its juice splattered against brick, and I paint until I remember
their color. I grew up in a brick house—rust, burnt sienna, the color
of the earth—and yet I cannot see the cracks that appeared
on the west side when I was ten years old. I only see the windchimes
that never existed. I wish there were ivy—
but there is only rust.
About the Artist
Emerald "noquisi" GoingSnake (they/she) is a Giduwa (Cherokee) and Mvskoke (Creek) lesbian creative from Tahlequah, Oklahoma. She is currently in her junior year at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM studying Creative Writing with emphases in Poetry and Creative Nonfiction. Her work is forthcoming from Tribal College Journal and Terrain.org. She plans to graduate IAIA in spring of 2025 with hopes to enter an MFA program post-graduation.