Shanna Bird

Creative Statement

My name is Shanna. I think thats what they call me..


"My hands.
Writhe and twist.
Scrape and follow.
Collecting fibers.
Diving into the sweat that accrues between the intertwined.
The nape of ones neck.
The tangle of hair.
Colliding from light to dark.
From soft to rough.
Finding ones head against the jutting bone of a shoulder blade.
The deep sighs.
The pull inward to slumber.
The dreams that collide with reality,
Until I awake to my hums.
I sing to you in my sleep.
With my hands still tracing the shadows,
Of a place where I could be small,
And lay my head."





"Inkblot
Tandomly interwoven
Intrinsically designed
And fastidiously combined
This is not just a way to shatter the moment
This is a way to break the glass
It's a preposterous proposition
And with it,
The question that I ask is why?
Am I made of flesh?
Or memories?"


"you remember the details of the dotted "i"
the poet who walks away in dreams
and suddenly i am outside
and i feel air on my skin
the light glows like melancholy words
sparking in the rain."


"He and He let She to scream at She
While violently throwing pieces of paper and tiny bits of hair into the sky
The walls sloped in like mothers arms
To cradle the anxiety
But they could never get there
The joints had no more give
And they were forced to watch in anguish
As spectrums of light pierced through them
Galloping in through the cracks
Like infiltrating soldiers
Illuminating their grimaces
Their snarls
Wild caged animals"


"I put my hand into my coat pocket.
It never came back.
I had to look for it.
But couldnt risk my other hand.
Wouldnt want to risk anothers.
... I felt confused.
Perplexed.
This notion was not pleasant.
And the confusion of not having a hand,
Nor feeling any pain.
Confused me more."


"i thought about the words you say
i wrote them all down
they burned up in a fire
set by devious demons
i memorized them
kept them high inside my mind
i hunted for all the answers
but fell asleep along the way."
"Black plastic boy
Ice cube on a tray
Grease
Liquid
Fuck
Torn it up side
Lick sick pick quick
pulp paper pin
Piss
Desperation
Seeking help please please answer
Play it quiet
Solice solistice
shut my mouth
shut my mind
shut my heart
selfish
shellfish
chew on chicken
chop
please please please
don't let him give up
Please God"


"outspoken nonsensical reality mentioned with formal tongues
thees and thous
contained together and secured with ichorous fluids
stop questioning me
leave me alone to my thoughts of solitude
you speak words you don’t even know are spoken.
over and over
you can’t read your own thoughts,
why do you believe that you can read mine?
telling me how to see life.
but everytime
the mouth you open,
blackness,
the color of dark.
and its down a tunnel of cobwebs
wrapping around the gag reflex
and up again like vomit
for you to wipe from your chin.
i draw the line at vomit."


THHPDTTTTTHHPTTDDTHPHTT

its all because of the day
my mother took me to my first day of school
suctioning in
black holes pull you by the legs
and they expect you not to breathe
not to scream
inside
with needles in their hands
sewing the mouths shut
rubber cementing new ones in the shapes of dollar bills
in the shapes of bunny noses
rockefeller fell off that building long ago
no need to focus on those tumbling rocks
those faulty buildings
demise
demise
demise in in their hands
like water dripping from the cracks in your mouth

the playground was warfare