my body

This poem was written after a sexual assault at a conference and heeds Moussawi’s (2022) call to center affect and “bad feelings” in our writing. Embracing Rosamond King’s (2019) call for radical interdisciplinarity and Audre Lorde’s (1984) assertation that poetry is not a luxury, I write how the sexual assault was both traumatic and familiar. The poem and methodological note that follows aims to open up conversations about what it means to study feelings, the body, and embodiment when for many, we are detached from our bodies. For those who have experienced traumatic events, our mind and body often disassociate, and this specter of trauma and disembodiment haunts the lives of women of color.