Either or

by Charlie Weinberg

[Posted by The Hankster in honor of the International Class and this year's graduates of the training program of the East Side Institute]

Either or
is very boring
when there is so much more
for us to draw on,
for us to explore...
Singular
plural
urban and rural
we are all part of the great big mural
the writing on the wall..
I am in relation to you...
a relative relative of yours.
We
are in relation to more
we
if
we want to be...
And, if not,
we are alone in a plot
which is filled with action,
every frame a fraction of our lives
every line a dialogue of knives
or a bowl of cherries...
cutlasses or berries
machetes or dinner with the dignitaries
who decides?
Do we have to take so many sides
Do we have to make divides
so wide
between either
or?
or
can we be a bit more
creative,
a little less
legislative
when it comes to
possibility?...
What can we possibly bring to be
that is not about
´me´...
that does not require the abduction of diversity
in order to exist...
Are we a group if there is no activity?
Is there ever no activity?
Can we engage
what others have for so long separated?
Is alienation not water to be navigated?
Are we not divorced from each other without
ever having been wed?
Should we not go on honey moon
instead?
Should we not be led more by our instincts
than by the forces of dread and the power
of what gets said?
What is the point of the daily grind, getting your shoes shined, wining and dining and being confined to meanings that are underlined by people inclined towards not being undermined?
what kind of ore can we find in a group mind?
What kind of threads and knots can we unwind
if we try together to unbind
rather than getting everything defined...as if we needed clarity
in order to progress...
as if we are reliant on logic to process stimulii
as if a dependency on abstract assumptions that agree
will avoid addiction to emotionality.
Good, bad and ugly,
is it possible to be all three
at once?
truly, madly, deeply...
which is the performance
for now?
How do we choose who we are?
Are we ever any one?
How do you carry on knowing that what you have done or said
is not what you thought in your head and
not what you wanted to do or say
yet you did it or said it and now it is done...
You have to go on from there you cannot run away
to start again...
although you are taught that you may.
And there is so much more for us to draw on...
So many more possibilities...

Charlie Weinberg is a British-born youth worker and performance poet who has been living in Nicaragua for the last five years. Among this year's graduates from the East Side Institute's International Class, she is on her way back to London to study Gender, Sexuality and Ethnicity at East London University.