Tuesday 26 July 2011

Day Two: Chapter Two- What I've Never Known

WHAT I'VE NEVER KNOWN

I've never known religion
Religion that hangs over my head
Its tendrils curling around my throat
To choke and inhibit my mind and my freedom
I've never known that religion
That brings you to your knees
And keeps you there groveling
Crawling
Through a dirt path
Bloody shins and ragged kneecaps
Fingernails encaked with mud
Lips coated with dust
I've never known that religion
That lines you up before men
Stripping you of your intellectual dignity
Peeling back the skin on your forearms
For unbearable scrutiny
A religion built on whispers
And crooked humanity
And lying tongues
And mute justice
I have never known that religion that I see people dancing to
Like they're treading over eggshells made of hot coals
That unpleasable deity
Who draws blood from yourself and your children
That comes out of its idol or painting
And strangles you with its bare hands
That religion where women's backs are bent by burdens
That belong to their fathers, brothers, husbands and uncles
Where men are stretched flat by expectations
And little girls are foot bound, wing clipped and kept inside
And little boys flogged with strips of manhood and other people's pride
I have never known that religion
That binds a family together until they are bleeding
The rough twine of words cutting through dermis and bone
A barbed wire fence around individual rooms in each home
A married couple lying in a bed
Three thousand worlds apart
I will never know that religion

But what I do know is love
A love that fashioned diamonds from dirt
Cradled carefully in The Maker's hand
The Creator's breath soft against the surfaces
A love that chased across ages to offer a solution and reconciliation
A love whose heart broke at the distance between two that were once beating in symphony
A love that stretched out its only son fastened taut to a tree
A love that sacrificed itself and told wrath "not them! take me!"
A love that beat down my stone door
And gave me multiple chances
A love that never fails, always prevails
A love that's liberty, grace and dancing
A love that is just and unyielding
A weapon and a shield
A love that lasts steadfast
In its surety and strength
A love that is shown
In a million and ones ways
Holding my gaze
Consuming my attention

This is all I know of love and religion.
  Follow Jeni Diamondz on Twitter @CallMeJendella

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