alternative futures: my first migration – decade two

note: this is another draft for a piece i’ll submit to the alternative futures project i’ve launched with my friend, grant.

for some reason, today i couldn’t stop crying. even as i write this, my eyes are welling up. but as one of our elders, adrienne, said many suns ago:

Remember you are water. Of course you leave salt trails. Of course you are crying.

Flow.

i knew today was coming. i’d known it for as long as i’d been conscious. but despite all that lead up time, the tears didn’t come until this morning. today is my 20th birthday, the time for my first migration.

i’m writing from the side of the road where i’ve parked my house for the evening. my makeshift covering is up and i have a little fire going. the green wood is burning a little smokier than i’d hoped, but it is what it is.

this morning was hard, but i got out by noon and that let me get a good distance before sundown.

when i woke up, i took all the stuff i had packed up last night, everything i owned, put it outside on my bamboo mat, and began breaking down my house.

continue to part 2…