A deep blue pond surrounded by reeds, algae floating around, many cod fish swimming inside and loud bullfrogs along the edges, with a wooden dock for entry. In the Berkshires of Upstate NY
When I was a young child, there was a small pond behind our house. In the summer my brother and I would spend a lot of time swimming and playing in this body of water. My brother used to flip this inflatable boat upside down on the surface of the pond. He would then dive in and swim underneath the inflatable boat, coming up from below into the air pocket it would create. He would stay there a while and pretend-played that he could breathe underwater.
During this one winter I kept dreaming over and over again that I was in the pond breathing underwater. I’m not sure how old I was but I must’ve been quite young, where the lines between worlds are soluble. With the frequency of these recurring dreams, it became unclear to me whether or not I could actually breathe underwater. I remember thinking that I would double check to make sure in the summer.
Remembering now the feeling of being enveloped inside this body of water, I’m realizing how the pond was a prominent character submerged in the story of my childhood. In the memory of my dreams, the feeling of breathing underwater was as if our bodies of water were converging. Perhaps mirroring how all of our bodies are significantly made of water, connected to each other and together with all of the water in the world. The pond was a poetic portal.
Manon Wada • She/HER • NY/ SF Bay Area/ NYC
Manon Wada is an artist originally from and currently based in New York City on Canarsie Munsee Lenape land. She lived a long time in between in the San Francisco Bay Area on Ohlone Muwekme Ramaytush land. Her art practice primarily takes form as sculpture, installation, and video, which frequently intersects with poetry. In tandem, she often works collaboratively and on socially engaged community based projects.
