VOICEOVER—SIRENS’ SIBLING

Constantine Jones

photo credit: Constantine Jones

Before you
get any ideas
no, they did not
exile me.
I left on my own
two wings.     Before you
go looking, you will not
find me on the sacred vases
under the museum glass.
My sisters they
stitched the air with their singing.
It is embroidered
for all time
& for what—
to draw a man down
deepsalt beneath the rocky beds.
I have had my fill of men.
They came, O yes, but not
for me.     I look too much
like them  &  not my sisters—
my feathers now brown
&  brittle for lack of sun.
My arms  &  breasts strong
sturdy, too much like their own.
By cold western waters I chip
my talons one by one
on the rainslick stones
&  no, I do not sing.
Sisters, one day the men will come
who will manage to resist you
&  on that day will you deny
the Old Laws—to fling your rain-
bow bodies into the deepsalt
for good.     I chose my own alone
myself 
&  now perhaps I will sing
my self after all
since I am not a man
since I am not my sisters’
sister or their brother
even—I am after
all only my self.
I will make no man
my song— no man! no man!
no man I am no man! —
&  they will not sing me
or sink me
when they come
in their longboats hardened
for war passing
&  passing me by
for warmer wet waters.
I will take this body
to the sky  &  sisters
please know
that no
I will not
scan the surf
for you or
your feathers.
Men will have
your vases after
all when one
among
our songs is sung—
yours muffled
under silent glass seas, mine
caught in my own
throat
for my self.

Constantine Jones is a Greek-American Thingmaker raised in Tennessee & housed in Brooklyn. They are a member of the Visual AIDS Artist+ Registry & teach creative writing at The City College of New York. Their work has been performed or exhibited at various venues across the city & their debut hybrid haunted house book, In Still Rooms, was released via The Operating System on March 4th, 2020. @storiesandnoise