ANDREA REXILIUS
ESSAY ON SISTERHOOD
A sister is an echo chamber. She is a nun, but the naked kind. Having religion is having a sister to speak in tongues with. You take a shower with your sister, and teach her to bathe her battlefield. She tells you what a country is, or what it means to divide. A sister is like war. She mimics you and you mock her. She will take your name out from under you. She will take your clothes and your culture. She will stand next to you in photographs, her face and your face exposed. A sister's breasts develop and her blood touches you. Your sister's brain makes a bridge against you. Your sister burns you down. My sister brings her palms up into the air, like this. She answers and her answers accumulate.
FRICTION
The move is always more powerful than the thing moved. Cause of swallowing. Cause of coughing. Cause of the numbness of various limbs. Cause of the tickling sensation. Cause of sensuality and other necessities of the body. Cause of urination. Cause of the sense of touch. See how birds are nourished in their eggs. See how muscles grasp the opening of the lung. Remedy is a decoction of red chick peas, of asparagus in a fine powder. Mingled together and consumed by a dilation of fibers.