“Plus Ultra”, a well-known phrase in the anime community that comes from the popular show My Hero Academia. It’s a phrase that is said when pushing one’s limits and going the extra mile. In a show about superheroes and villains, many situations require the heroes to go beyond and surpass themselves in order to defeat the villains. I get this exact feeling from lê thị diễm thúy’s poem, sans papiers. When she says “cut into the color of those waters” and “feel the past course through you” I instantly thought of this comparison. When you take the extra steps to push yourself and cut into the color of those waters, an amazing feeling will overcome you. The feeling of what you’ve accomplished because of your own power and and your own power when you feel the past course through you. The results of your hard work are clear and mesmerizing, like “watching the world explode before your eyes.” The feeling doesn’t end there either. As time goes on, you’ll look back on the accomplishments you made after pushing yourself and understand that you can do it again when the situation is at hand. You’ll “weigh the seas you swallowed to swim here”.
Everybody has a past. How we develop as people comes from our upbringing as a child. Look back on yourself and think, what have I gone through that makes me who I am today? What limits have I broken to become a better version of myself?
sans papiers
cut into the color
of those waters
feel the past course through you
and then fall
graze the inside
of a woman’s thigh
flip this white frieze black
it now is night
pin a fish’s tail to the scene
inhale the trail of fireworks on the shore
watch the world explode
before your eyes
lift these threads of memory off the floor
weigh the seas you swallowed
to swim here