Soil
In the comforts of my company I have the Annie John urge to seek the scent of my cunt, that exquisite way I purr into a room. Luxuriate as if seaside and horizon always being the tease, but these waves, with their predictable highs and lows, cease lapping. All this to say, I am a free woman now, and a spiritual medium saw Harriet Tubman by my side, which means there is no turning back. Clarity is a singular truth that illuminates corners that make you feel some shame. I stop polishing the mirror and look without distraction or correction— ego is a box stamped fragile. And I am fecund on these linen sheets, deep in my inner world, in my clay, in my love’s darkest part.
Audio: Arisa White reads “Soil”
Arisa White is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Colby College. She is the author of Who’s Your Daddy, co-editor of Home Is Where You Queer Your Heart, and co-author of Biddy Mason Speaks Up, the second book in the Fighting for Justice Series for young readers. Post Pardon: The Opera marked Arisa’s debut as a librettist, and the libretto is forthcoming from Ecstatic Motion Press in 2026. Her poetry is widely published, and her collections have been nominated for both the NAACP Image Award and the Lambda Literary Award. She has also won the Per Diem Poetry Prize, the Maine Literary Award, the Nautilus Book Award, an Independent Publisher Book Award, the Golden Crown Literary Award, and the Airlie Press Prize. The poem installation look after your heart is displayed at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. She is a Cave Canem fellow and serves on the Community Advisory Board for Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.