The Limits of Language

The Limits of Language

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

it was something about the bounce in my step,
in the rippling jiggle of my belly & breasts,
something about the periwinkle painted pinkies,
the purple pointers, the chipping its own kind
of fashioning, something about the bend
of the wrist, of the flick, about the way it shares
the blunt, something about passing, breaths
falsetto’d, about the difficulty of altitudes—
& maybe less how & why, more when & where—
all of the comings in & out, something about pride
with a sibling fear of my own body, someone
checking the clock, how a sentence shivers,
something about my sentient shivering, everything
about how i’m too sensitive sometimes, too
sensual, something suspect & censured,
something to do with attunement, with pulses
in the blood, something about water & thickness
& viscosity, something more like nectar, yeah,
like golden honey, like golden bees & their buzzing
geographies—the gut brain in the hive mind,
something closer to how land shifts & water waves & waves,
something like the supple becoming of flora & fungi, then,
of drifting pollen, yeah, reaching closer to something
in how limbs can reach & how nails reach in that reach
like a camera eye zooming in, out, in, all a single take

Support The Nation’s June Fundraising Campaign

With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.

As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.

We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we’re raising $20,000 to power The Nation’s independent journalism in the run-up to November’s immensely consequential elections.

It’s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you’ll donate today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x