![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Poem-for-Professor-Arday-1024x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I wrote this in grief, but also in discomfort.<\/p>\n
There are deaths that ask us not only to mourn, but to reckon with what happened while a person was still alive: the hounding, the racialised scrutiny, the slow taking apart of a human being in public, and the silences that gather around it.<\/p>\n
When Breath Becomes a Country<\/em>\u00a0is a dirge for what cannot be undone. It is also about regret \u2014 about the terrible lateness of recognising what someone may have been carrying only after they are gone.<\/p>\n I did not want to write a poem of easy hope. I wanted to stay with the shame, the sorrow and the question of what solidarity demands\u00a0before<\/strong>\u00a0mourning becomes necessary.<\/p>\n This is for the hunted, and for the living.<\/p>\n When Breath Becomes a Country<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n There are griefs that do not arrive. A headline. A whisper. A thousand small permissions And somewhere a human being learns how softly to speak, We know this arithmetic.<\/p>\n Its oldest name is racism<\/strong>.<\/p>\n After that, it acquires better manners.<\/p>\n A raised eyebrow. Until a life becomes an endless defence of itself.<\/p>\n This is how a soul is pillaged:<\/p>\n not always in one great violence, And now grief comeswith questions Did we stand close enough when the hounds began circling?<\/p>\n Did we hear the hunt beneath the language of scrutiny, standards, concern?<\/p>\n There is shame here.<\/p>\n Let it remain.<\/p>\n Not the shame of the hunted. The shame belongs to the hunt.<\/strong><\/p>\n And there is regret.<\/p>\n Mountains of \u00a0regret.<\/p>\n Regret is such a useless country. if only.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n (by Lebohang Liepollo Pheko) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I wrote this in grief, but also in discomfort. There are deaths that ask us not only to mourn, but to reckon with what happened while a person was still alive: the hounding, the racialised scrutiny, the slow taking apart of a human being in public, and the silences that gather around it. When Breath […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5530,6865],"class_list":["post-27801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-liepollo-lebohang-pheko","tag-professor-jason-arday","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27804,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27801\/revisions\/27804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThey accumulate.<\/p>\n
\ngiven to cruelty
\nuntil cruelty believes itself righteous.<\/p>\n
\nthe terrible arithmetic of being watched:<\/p>\n
\nhow carefully to enter a room,
\nhow brightly not to shine,
\nhow much of yourself to surrender
\nbefore they call you safe.<\/p>\n
\nA careful insinuation.
\nThe question asked again after it has been answered.
\nThe doubt that follows you from room to room.<\/p>\n
\nbut piece by piece, certainty by certainty,
\nbreath by breath- until even breathing
\nmust produce evidence
\nof innocence.<\/p>\n
\nwe are too late to ask.<\/p>\n
\nNever that.<\/p>\n
\nEvery road ends at the same locked door:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/When-Breath-Becomes-a-Country-Poem-Prof-Arday-723x1024.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\n(Image Credit 1: Ad Reinhardt, Abstract Painting \/ Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum)
\n(Image Credit 2: Lebohang Liepollo Pheko)<\/p>\n