Dyad

At grad school I was assigned a dyad
we were different as ice to sand
she taught me the perils of adoption
I taught her the perils of a birth family.
In this Family of Origin focused program
we learned together there is no escape
from the entry we make into our lives,
attachment has its forever after effect,
and the umbilical cord function has no
expiration date—it weaves through space
and time—to cut it sharp, to move onward
to the universal cord, a natural progression
thwarted by the parents who raised us
and resist, who pull us back wanting
their mirror image to fulfill the sacrifice
made, the investment, the lost time.
We grew together then apart like any dyad
like any parent and child need to, to live a life
we call our own, to make our true home.

 

Julene Tripp Weaver is a psychotherapist and writer in Seattle, WA. Her latest poetry book, truth be bold—Serenading Life & Death in the Age of AIDS, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards and won the Bisexual Book Award. Her work is online at The Seattle Review of Books, Poetry Pacific, Voices in the Wind, Antinarrative Journal.

Art can illuminate even the most elusive and difficult to comprehend ideas. Visual rules and tightly codified visual metaphors help scientists communicate complex ideas mostly amongst themselves, but they can also become barriers to new ideas and insights. Dr. Regina Valluzzi’s images are abstracted and diverged from the typical rules and symbols of scientific illustration and visualization; they provide an accessible window into the world of science for both scientists and non-scientists.