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Walton Goggins, Interview mag

#walton goggins #spirituality #life #love #reminder

“It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here.”

— James Baldwin, from “They Can’t Turn Back”

#james baldwin

I Guess By Now I Thought I'd Be Done With Shame (Franny Choi)

but I opened my coat to prove a point and kept coming home with colds. I thought I was done stuffing fists in my mouth to mute the sound. Done lying about what trails my throat had charted. I practiced looking tall men in the eye, spoke loudly, pronounced every ‘R.’ I chopped wood at midnight. I left the shower and kept singing. I sang about my body like I was proud. I was proud. I was – My legs churned the poolwater. I clamped silicone and didn’t cry. Learned the names of oils. Asked for another finger. I cried. Swore to drown before saying sorry. I sang about my death like I was over it. Ground my face into the soil, like I was ready to shave it off. I stopped shaving. Told a joke in the voice of a stupid girl. I waved a flag of my own bones. I threw my sordid liver at a man – think fast – then acted surprised, again, when he caught it in his teeth. Not everyone who speaks this way is lying. Somewhere, there is a version of me that isn’t neck- deep in her invented filth. Somewhere a woman is walking barefoot through the woods, trailing white linen, walking without a dog snapping at her heels. Both of us are singing. Both of us are bragging in the past tense. One of us is still here. That much, I guess, at least, is true.

#franny choi #poetry #poem