“Rebuilding In Her Vision:” Arielle Twist’s Forceful Poetry Collection, Disintegrate/Dissociate, Exploring Queer Indigeneity And The Spaces Beyond Language
In Disintegrate/Dissociate, an award-winning debut collection of poetry, Arielle Twist writes unsparingly of the death and violence that accompanies her life as a Nehiyaw, Two Spirit and trans woman. In short, staccato bursts, Twist grapples with the erased languages around her, and the destruction and desire of relationships.
In the poem that opens the collection, “Prelude,” Twist invokes the spaces beyond language - and what violence has ripped away from its grasp. She writes, “The night our kokum died,/my mother cried out in/another language.” She writes of her own charged mission, to “Disintegrate or dissociate./I will deconstruct myself,/and rebuild in her vision.”
Poems that particularly encounter the fissures between queerness and Indigeneity, and transness and spirituality include "Who Will Save You Now?" "Mother/Creator, "Born in Mourning'' and "Iskwêw." Twist writes, “Who will save you now that your homelands / hate the holiest parts of you?” and that “Queerness and indigeneity not intersecting quietly/ white queers policing your existence / indigeneous blood telling you that you’re / a new generation problem.”
For all its linguistic sparseness, Disintegrate/Dissociate is a substantial and forceful work to be read and read again. It is particularly compelling too as it weaves in the power exchanges in sex, exploring the control of choosing submission. Note: this collection includes descriptions of sexual assault, violence and uses explicit language.
You can purchase a copy from Arsenal Press: https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/D/Disintegrate-Dissociate.