Listen to:
Oral histories
with urban NYC swimmers.
Women and bodies and water
and other more than human things.
Nora:
“I’m interested in swimming.You said you like to swim right?
Interviewee:
“Yes”
Nora:
“Is the place where you swim, a place where you have noticed plants or animals?”
Interviewee:
“Well . . . maybe sharks and sea turtles. But the most fun I like is the dolphins”
Nora:
“The dolphins! Have you ever seen a dolphin in New York City?”
Interviewee:
“Yes”
Nora:
“Really?!”
Biodiversity Day in Gowanus, Brooklyn
READ: Echolalia
for simone
like the rest of us
aquatic animals learn terrestrial myths
and fill their pockets with ordinary rocks
they collect on the beach
and wave at people on the ferry
commuting to work
they feel small and mammalian
and suffer from being not quite yet extinct
when they are sad they get up
on the roof and face the forest of highrises to the west
stay until the clouds are beautiful
and bruised and the sun falls into the ocean
every morning aquatic animals swim in the pool
because they love repetition
and because the river was dammed
and diverted and now is a rust colored line
that tastes like blood and salt and rebar
and hurts like a spine pulled out of something
aquatic animals think this is the place where language comes from
our bodies and our mouths
mimic the curve of a dry culvert
oh.
fill the empty riverbed with voices
oh.
stay until they are drowned out by highway sounds
we mistake for music the rustling of leaves and nausea
for grief and love for the river
as it passes through the storm drain
on it’s way somewhere else
São Jorge
in Azores, Portugal
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