Spiziri & raum – May 2025

nat raum and Michelle Spiziri traded art and words. Michelle shared this image, titled “Seed Souls,” with nat:

In response, nat wrote this poem:

eternal return as seed souls

even still, i curl up fetus-like
at the thought of becoming soil
as we all do eventually,

returning carbon to black
gold. the earth could greet me
like my mother would

and i would probably still
spend my idle time afraid to be
placed in a hole, even without

a pulse—i am claustrophobic
in every sense of the word,
and most of my ancestors

seemed to share the sentiment,
as many of them now rest in ashes 
instead. would it comfort me 

more to know i could enter into
afterlife through the same dirt
as all who came before me? mouths

would ascend from depths to tell
me all their stories as i expire.
my grandmothers hands, half-gnarled 

and half-decomposed, would extend 
gently through silty loam, cupping
mine with their soft security. even 

still, despite fear, i believe we always
hold each other in too many shades
to classify, through good and bad

and life and death, and the magic
is in the knowing: this love i have
found on earth is for keeps.

* * * * *

nat shared this poem with Michelle:

eternal return as dr. salvador’s chainsaw

After Resident Evil 4

what is a chain if not a loop and what is a loop if not a kind of violence? sisyphus was not known for having it easy and ouroboros means destruction too. and until we locate the source of the epidemic, so too will a parasite multiply, clone itself across bodies until village elder wields a chainsaw, face wrapped in burlap sack. what is parasitism if not symbiosis, symbiosis if not a bond, a bond if not love? i can’t be trusted with these questions—i will tell you anything is love if it manages to attach itself to my vital organs. the first in the chain of men i should have run from did not wield any weapon but a few choice words. and again. and again. and again.

In response, Michelle made this image, titled “And again, And again, And again”: