as we fade (2021-2023)
Cotton fabric solar-dyed with poison ivy, cotton thread, glass beads, crushed velvet and metal L-brackets. Sizes vary per piece.
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Bathe in the remnants of the sunlit waters, weaving your fingers through decayed leaves, sunken cloth and me. Inhale as the murky tides flood the space between gloves and skin. As my wet embrace wraps around your wrists, then palms, then finger tips - pulling you in deeper. Hoping you won’t let go.
Eventually your hands will pull back from the water, our cloth pinched between your fingertips, and I am left behind to dissolve into nothingness.
Our stained fabric will dry in the sunlight without me, the rash I left from our touch will heal and scar slowly on your forearms, and my poison will fade from our fabric. Will I fade too?
From your conversations, from the joy when you speak my name, from the strength you feel in our connection, from your searching gaze.
My leaves may have wilted, dissolved in that water long ago, and new sprouts emerge in the park every spring. Will you visit? Will you hold on? Or shall you forget me, like others do.
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