GENESIS

in the beginning

my first word

was “hallelujah”

which means

church baby, tongue

knows praise better

than his mama’s name

 

then god said, let us make man in our image

& i look just like my daddy,

the handsome preacher

whose lies became gospel

 

after my father loses the church

my heart is no pipe organ

but it fills me with music,

leads a congregation of bones

into worship each time i rise

 

after eighteen years of communion sundays

if i consume anymore

of jesus’s flesh & blood

i might regurgitate him

back to life

 

before rest, on the last day

all i want from death

is a swift benediction,

this body is just a church,

& life, a really long service

that our parents dragged us into

 

don’t let them say, he was raised in church

tell them, he was the church

 

and it was good.

 

---

LEFT BEHIND

one day i’ll make it

to heaven’s gates

& they’ll say,

poor soul

your eternity

is not                  here.

& i’ll reply,

tell me something

i didn’t know since

i was twelve

on that saturday afternoon

in Houston, when i finally

had my own room

& woke up

to find my family

disappeared.

 

the Lord made good

on his promise to usher

the righteous to paradise

 

& i am not among them.

 

i am everything

left behind.

 

the dinosaur

that missed the ark,

doomed to be consumed

by a flood of fire

 

& if my story must be told

in fossils, i hope someday

my bones can help someone

find god in themself.

 

but in a flash

my family returns home,

hands full of groceries.

 

& my mother says

my only sin is oversleeping

 

& the wages of sin

is to bring the remaining bags

inside the house & now i vanish

leaving nothing

behind.

---

FOR NYJEAH (a haiku)

we used to play tag.

now we don’t even touch base

& time says, you’re it.

---

Dave G is a Philadelphia-based spoken word poet, performer and entertainer. His poetry is the tumultuous product of baptist preaching, hip-hop culture and tireless introspection. He received his BA in English from the Pennsylvania State University—University Park, where he organized and performed at poetry shows that attracted hundreds of students and featured popular poets such as Olivia Gatwood, Andrea Gibson, Remi Kanazi and many more. He also assembled and earned a spot on Penn State’s first nationally competing slam poetry team, which succeeded 68 collegiate teams to a co-championship at the 2017 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) in Chicago. His love of performance was born from watching his father preach every week at his family church in South Philadelphia; however, instead of pulpits and sermons, he uses stages and poetry to spread messages of social justice, political consciousness and self-love.