NaPoWriMo day 7

Yes yes I owe a big back log of 2-6. I was at a conference without internet/computer access and haven't had time to transcribe from my notebook to typed...
But so I don't fall entirely from grace, here's today's:

Trade Routes

reeds replace piers, though surely
it's the other way around- this sharp
dip of ground to water is what
i have come for. haven't come for
anyone in weeks. i am
beach glass or river, serving
my own ware down to a less transparent.

Hudson is a raging mosilium- I
fear infertitlity watching the movement south.

highways are not coincidence. railways
long were trailways, these paths already
cleared. my body has dammed a most basic motion-
this path is in plain sight if you
know how to look for it.

30/30 Day 1

My prompt: A ten line poem based on a question/answer writing exchange I did with a friend on Tuesday morning

If I Forget to Strike

it’s no secret you’ve resorted to me as I’ve no hands
to strike back and it takes only simple charms to temper my tongue.
a snake and a man— you’ll lull me like brief evolution.

if a crowd gathers mistaking us for show, we’ll follow the pulse
of a worn woman’s liver to the bar in the next town’s crumbling center—
i’ll listen for the breathe well in your heartbeat—
a path for the slither until a small child leaps without looking down.

i can only hope
to be a shark or elephant
next time.

Madame of Motion Makes Moves

Belly dancing is going to save my life. It is that simple in a way.
After class this week, (my third ever hour of belly dance training), my teacher came up to me and in her bubbly, Rosie Perez-esque way told me that I better not stop because she'd never seen anyone dance like that off the bat.
I can't pretend that being good at it doesn't help how much I am loving it. It's huge to feel like my body is doing something "right."
But beyond this, it is the satisfaction I am getting from having a place where I can actually feel my bravery- in my muscle and fat and nerves- my body.
Aside from a few months of West African dance while I was living in Ohio, I haven't taken a dance class since I was maybe thirteen. Too much trauma- I couldn't feel myself let alone look at myself move. This year, like most years, I made it my resolution to start dancing again. A half hour into April, I am dancing everyday with classes on Saturdays.
I look in the wall to wall mirrors and am shocked that my body looks strong and tall and thick and not deformed. In fact it looks damn sexy and familiar. I tell my teacher the hip scarves are not one size fits all, I identify as fat and a dancer and she hears me.
And I dance hard. And it makes me feel like a whole person .

And so in the name of motion and push push push I have made a big ol commitment:
April is my birthday month. It's also national poetry month.
As an Aries and a poet, I am going to get a little linguistically AG on my own ass, aka I'll be doing NaPoWriMo: 30 Poems in 30 days.
Stay Tuned!!!