Creator of Wands

On Devotion
by Ashley Walker

I’ve known what’s true since I was
glitter-ooze in my own eggshell
becoming full of the conquering pride
of the artist who keeps their head down

since I was galaxy heart in such a small space
full with the feeling of ambition
contained and ready

and I know it still.
I’ve been a person in a body
since the day I was born.

We’ll unravel, sometime
with our hearts wiped clean and open
devoted to the letting go, and the work
and the quiet craft happening inside

I’ve been keeping things warm.
You’ve been a person in a body
since the day you were born.

Ashley Walker (she/her) is a queer, Indigenous writer and mother from Portland, OR. Her work centers on themes of claiming and reclaiming identity, generational trauma and substance abuse, reparative love, and how it’s been to be a woman in a body in America for the past thirty-seven years.