Foliage of our Cerebellum

Kabisha Velauthapillai, 2T4 Fitz

Artist’s Statement: This poem was a product of my wonder for the more-than-human, my appreciation for the privilege of seeing the inside of the cerebellum we hold within us, and a deep dissatisfaction about the way we are made to ingest rather than digest learnings about the human body.

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A sagittal section of the cerebellum can show us a pattern akin to the foliage of a tree.
Branches, 
with sub-branches, splaying, 
displaying leaves that make up the foliage of
our tree.

Our tree—
Teeming with networks
of soliloquies, heard and unheard, 
thoughts rushing through the white and grey matters
of what we call
our brain.

Our brain—
Perhaps where our consciousness lies,
that very abstraction,
that makes up the essence of you, of me, of us,
of the world that we have constructed around us
via our inner foliage that presumptively makes way
for this abstraction of consciousness.

My consciousness looks at the foliage of the trees
passing by
as I pass by.
The trees whose foliage
hits a tone of vibrancy
with the red, the yellow,
the green, the brown
against the grey of the city buildings,
against the grey of the clouds,
against the bold blue of the sky above us.

And I wonder.
I wonder about these connections
between us and the trees,
the trees and us.
About the patterns in our cerebellum
and the foliage of the trees.
Mere coincidence,
or something more?
So I wonder.

I wonder.