MAMA’S BLUES
Wild Jungle sculptural painting by Henry Hudson.
Seeing a field of colourful lupins, lost
in its chromatic degradation intelligence
I am reminded of the perfect colours, patterns, shapes,
function and interfunction congruence
of underground minerals, wild flowers and bird songs,
of aurora borealis and bioluminescent sea waves.
Of the over and under, ground or water Paradise
that everybody wants to place somewhere else
while believing that what they see
can only have been designed by a God
appreciating beauty’s diversity
only when it is not their own.
I am reminded of seahorses, shooting stars and pink lakes,
rainbow mountains, tropical fruits and glowworm caves
millennial baobabs, polka-dot leaves and multi-step waterfalls
salt fields, moon valleys and first rain’s petrichor
air plants, spiral clouds and black shores
galloping glaciers, orange savannas and spotted seashells
coral reefs, snow dunes and gemstones
blue lava, red rivers and striped rocks
monsoon forests, fairy circles and supercell thunderstorms
floating lotuses, methane bubbles and fogbows
sky halos, supernovas and black suns
fire rainbows, rainbow trees and sandstone waves
flowery deserts, purple sunsets and fauna’s gaze.
I am reminded that it mutates, self-heals and co-creates.
That it speaks, in hyphal-network words.
That its intricate individual and symbiotic wisdom
we can’t understand how it works.
That its vastness, depth, and worth
is something we don’t even know.
That we create in supremacy, outwards, like an orphan electron
while we can’t reflect nor comprehend our inner and outer world.
When all the answers are there, in a mirage of gold
of spotless, synchronised and syncopated order in it all.
I am reminded that it sounds like poetry
just by naming it, natural idiosyncrasy.
That I can move myself, no longer needing metaphors.
I am reminded of those who, believe it or not,
with no awe, reverence or kinship feel like trashing it all
preaching on the divine... bigotry, helotry
and furthermore, feeling like they are not
ending themselves in the same go.
Cristina Morales
Cristina Morales is a London-based Spanish cultural activist. With a BA in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Barcelona and a MA in Arts & Culture Production from the Open University of Catalonia, she has become a socially engaged curator, writer and self-taught artist linking art with politics. She works for freelance projects and public, private and nonprofit organisations using arts & culture as an agency tool to challenge society on identity, decolonialism and community development. In addition to being the founding curator of the first decolonial thinktank mapping Cultural Activism worldwide Counterspace, and the founding artist of the Situationist brand of political designs and performances Totem Taboo, she also writes on decoloniality and counternarratives, human and community development through art, and African and African Diaspora arts & culture for national, international and specialised media such as El Mundo; Humanities, Arts & Society; Gods and Radicals; Wiriko; and Radio Africa.