Sherrie-Leigh Jones, The Circling of the Moon, 2014 (Artist Website, Instagram, Twitter)
Screenprint, collage, foil and handcut vinyl on found image, 6 x 12.5 cm
I have known my body as a plexus of river maybe
forever vessel & blue-green vein, a topographical map flowing just beneath
my skin, raised, pooled at the pale inner bend of elbow
full, easy target for red needled penetration.
Recently they’ve discovered another liquid system,
the color & substance of flow evaporated mystery.
Unmapped channels have always run through me
then. An elusive network that disappears into line
of sinew when the body dries, a desert society
of empty seasonal streams.
What is the substance of impermanence?
A trick like light, both wave and particle?
When I was as small as the child who floats by
my window, his hands swimming through air carried high
on the shoulders of an old man, I learned
the heft of my body is ninety percent water.
A fact that still slips through
me like rain.