TLC (Tender Loving Care) | 2017
March 15, 2017
8:54 AM to 9:47 AM | 56º
800 lbs quartz
Performance
I am tense.
I feel my collarbone jut out from my body,
creating small pools
to collect rain
on either side of my neck
because my shoulders are tight,
and my legs are stiff,
but my palms face upward
as if to welcome something I might not want.
She places the rocks on my body,
moving from my chest, to my abdomen, to my pelvis.
The stones move with me,
when I breathe, they breathe.
Then she covers my eyes,
one
stone
on
each
lid.
But, I have control,
and I can move.
So it is a question of endurance
because I feel like I'm being force-fed rocks.
And I try to pull my head away
from the earth that enters my mouth
and the worms that wriggle on my neck,
but there is nowhere to go.
My body disappears,
and I am everyone—
a surrogate
naked and convulsing in the grass.
