On this side of heaven
houses are humble,
gods…
…are born,
and the walls of empire
are gateways to heaven.
Chora,
They will confuse you
with the daughter of Zeus,
as though every sanctuary,
a womb.
Vestibule a vagina.
Your narthex,
an immaculate birth canal
where cross marks the spot
between your legs.
Just like your matron saint,
you were born in the boondocks too.
But when your newborn is marked for death,
that bullseye on that baby’s back
is no Cavalry.
Chora,
We crawl up inside you
like the only way back to heaven
is through your abdomen.
Like your pelvis
was the cradle to humanity.
We bend at the waist,
sometimes five times a day,
to open your hips
and see the light.
But your were once
just a wall.
A portion of a fortress, confused
as to whether you are keeping the divine
out,
or whether you are keeping the divine
in.
Whether you are
Constanti-pated
or regular.
Like me,
and every gentile, Jew,
and god fearing Muslim.
Chora,
you weren’t trying
to make a name for yourself
like Constantine the Great
‘cause somedays
you didn’t wake up feeling too good.
Somedays,
you were no Suleiman the Magnificent.
Those days
you locked yourself in the room,
looked yourself in the mirror
and said, “I’m not going anywhere
with this foundation looking like an earthquake!”
Those days,
you felt a lot like a foot
at the bottom of the Ottoman,
and on those days
It didn’t matter whether you were
a church
or a mosque.
Because what was going on
inside of you
could peel the plaster
off the walls
of the Virgin Mary’s stomach.
But Chora,
gods are people too.
And sometimes,
other people get them confused
just like you.
Sometimes they die
too young.
Sometimes people call them names,
say their mother
is a whore…
a holy, holy whore.
You never put them down.
You put them on your ceilings,
remembered them as they were.
So that whenever
we couldn’t remember,
all we had to do
was look up.
*****
(c) Hakim Bellamy, 18 June 2014 Istanbul, Turkey
Inaugural Poet Laureate of Albuquerque, New Mexico (2012-2014)
Founder & CEO of Beyond Poetry LLC
www.hakimbe.com
www.beyondpoetryink.com
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Hakim Bellamy
Community Publishing will be publishing Hakim Bellamy’s Samuel’s Story, a multimedia children’s story featuring the music of DJ Flo Fader and the illustrations of Melvin Mayes.
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