White-washed winter
pale and green
pick axe strikes,
lake gurgles as
cracking ice
becomes womb for
ancestral bathing.
I bathe in the womb
of ancestral longing.
Pain learns my body
longing, pain body
is alive, alive body
knows it’s broken,
being alive means
my heart is always breaking
broken being
longing for its own
undoing.
The ancestral womb is made of millions
of pieces of shattered ice,
of shattered longing.
The ancestral womb is the pick-axe
that shatters my body into its own undoing.
—
Justus Wachs is a participatory action researcher, poet, and PhD candidate at McGill University in Montreal. Combining contemplative practices with creative methods like poetry, storytelling, and meditation, his work explores how inner transformations of values and worldviews can inspire collective action and systemic change. With a decade of environmental activism and creative facilitation, Justus engages with sustainability-focused activists and organizations to foster transformative learning and address socio-ecological crises.
