The Excavation

The Excavation

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

My 8-yr-old daughter is teaching me
how to live with myself
after 34yrs in this body I can finally

split myself in two & marvel that now I pass
the Bechdel test.
What I’ve let men scavenge—

my collarbones, femurs, the fleshy pads
of my inner thighs, bitemarks
butterflying from the clotted cream

that cornmeal death has made
of my skin—has given
way to blood

poisoning.I haven’t done much but get dumped
by one & tell the other to stop raping
me when I’m dreamcumming

& he finally after 13yrs together & a year
of divorce
understands a sleeping body moaning

is not consent. & while he’s had to learn
truths he should’ve learned as a boy
I too chart a map to my unlearning.

I rewatch the filmstrips of my girlhood
with my girl & she covers her face at kissy scenes
& very practically, very kindly but firmly

lifecoaches the girls/women
You are worth so much more than you know
& finally I hear from the gift of my womb

what my mother never
taught me. My daughter transforms the desert
of my memory—peels the spines

from the cacti, fashions me a crown
that asks Who were you when you weren’t blooming only
for boys? & I recall the night-

blooming cereus, whose bats fly hundreds of miles
one night of the year to sustain themselves
on the sweet nectar, & how many

mornings I missed, how many
dark things I emptied myself for. My daughter
is a graveyard by which I mean ripe

for rebirthing. She pulls me from the beds
I’ve buried & tells me
if she is wise it’s because I’ve taught her

by which she means
I’ve held myself deep within
myself all along.

I’ve plucked bones & swapped
for jackrabbit for woodrat for javelina. O tusks
o glorious horns

I’ve borne
from daughter, from the un-
mothered loam.

Hold the powerful to account by supporting The Nation

The chaos and cruelty of the Trump administration reaches new lows each week.

Trump’s catastrophic “Liberation Day” has wreaked havoc on the world economy and set up yet another constitutional crisis at home. Plainclothes officers continue to abduct university students off the streets. So-called “enemy aliens” are flown abroad to a mega prison against the orders of the courts. And Signalgate promises to be the first of many incompetence scandals that expose the brutal violence at the core of the American empire.

At a time when elite universities, powerful law firms, and influential media outlets are capitulating to Trump’s intimidation, The Nation is more determined than ever before to hold the powerful to account.

In just the last month, we’ve published reporting on how Trump outsources his mass deportation agenda to other countries, exposed the administration’s appeal to obscure laws to carry out its repressive agenda, and amplified the voices of brave student activists targeted by universities.

We also continue to tell the stories of those who fight back against Trump and Musk, whether on the streets in growing protest movements, in town halls across the country, or in critical state elections—like Wisconsin’s recent state Supreme Court race—that provide a model for resisting Trumpism and prove that Musk can’t buy our democracy.

This is the journalism that matters in 2025. But we can’t do this without you. As a reader-supported publication, we rely on the support of generous donors. Please, help make our essential independent journalism possible with a donation today.

In solidarity,

The Editors

The Nation

x