By hakim bellamy
Just beyond the shoreline
of cheek lies a body
of water.
Nothing against the brackish blue
of beach and baywatch.
Nothing against the shallow
and swallow of water,
clear as spit.
But you are different.
Your eyes, dark.
Your oceans, deep
like the person pooling inside you. Black
as a body at the bottom
of the Atlantic.
And when you lie on your back
balancing my nose atop yours,
our lips pointing at each other
like a reflection,
I can make out ancestors
desperately trying to stay afloat
in the abyss of your gaze.
They are still
as beautiful as the mutiny
that landed them overboard.
As beautiful as the flesh
colored torpedo
that sometimes sunk
the shipping and handling
of chattel, in half.
As beautiful as
the pair of wings you ingested
and blossomed into gills.
The flood in your voice.
The oceanspray still on your breath
The saltbeds just beneath the shoreline
of your cheek.
Your beauty does not evaporate,
it never drowns.
So much so,
those jealous of your beauty
try to bottle it.
So Precious
they will sell you by the ounce.
Swap pedestals for auction blocks
to remind you the consequences
of your audacity.
How dare you
rival the flawless fascade
of Adonis?
Survival is beautiful.
Just like you.
The spoils of natural selection
and its amazing that you still
have your figure,
that black still don’t crack
after all these years of trying to
eliminate the object
of their aphrodisia.
And people would have you
consider yourself fortunate that
genocide hasn’t left a mark.
Your beauty has become that
of myth and make-up.
Their firehose fetish tried
and failed to segregate beauty
from your Brownstone face.
Different
is what makes beautiful,
beautiful.
At least noteworthy.
Unlike anything else
and you
are different.
(c) Hakim Bellamy February 12th, 2015
*a self-love poem for Black History Month, about a Black person.
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Hakim Bellamy
Hakim Bellamy is Albuquerque’s Inaugural Poet Laureate, and counts, educator, musician and community organizer among his many ventures. Hakim’s multimedia Children’s book, Samuel’s Story is scheduled for release by Community Publishing in the Spring, 2015. Image courtesy of Joy Godfrey
Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as multimedia eBooks while promoting literacy in our communities.
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