Gray Bell

“A person can't tell another person what to put between them and their God.”
― J. California Cooper, Wild Stars Seeking Midnight Suns

“American Wedding

In america,
I place my ring
on your cock
where it belongs.
No horsemen
bearing terror,
no soldiers of doom
will swoop in
and sweep us apart.
They’re too busy
looting the land
to watch us.
They don’t know
we need each other
critically.
They expect us to call in sick,
watch television all night,
die by our own hands.
They don’t know
we are becoming powerful.
Every time we kiss
we confirm the new world coming.

What the rose whispers
before blooming
I vow to you.
I give you my heart,
a safe house.
I give you promises other than
milk, honey, liberty.
I assume you will always
be a free man with a dream.
In america,
place your ring
on my cock
where it belongs.
Long may we live
to free this dream.”
― Essex Hemphill, Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry

“Gods always behave like the people who make them.”
― Zora Neale Hurston, Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica

“You cannot avoid hearing drums in Haiti.”
― Zora Neale Hurston, Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica