Rooted In

Abstract

A collection of poems using a bildungsroman narrative structure that follows a primary speaker from her early experiences of parentification into her education and miseducation as a registered nurse. The collection unfolds in four sections: loss, education, personal growth through conflict, and maturity. Through confessional and documentary poetics, this collection aims to map medical history alongside the lives of women, using an intersectional feminist lens to illuminate the complex and oppressive structures that underpin these systems. Rooted In utilizes court transcripts, persona, competing news headlines, instructions for post-mortem care, and congressional testimonies to interrogate corporate negligence during the global health crisis, the rise of eugenics following the last pandemic, and other instances throughout medical history that threaten bodily autonomy. By engaging with "the dark birds of history," these poems enter into conversation with the works of Muriel Rukeyser, Solmaz Sharif, Natasha Trethewey, C.D. Wright, and many other notable poets. At the core of this collection, these poems ask us to consider our origins, trouble these structures, and arrive at a more capacious understanding of caring for ourselves and our communities.