Day Twenty-Three

(In)Constant / (Un)Faithful. Galatians 4:16.

We welcome Franklyn Harrison as our featured voice today.
franklyn (twitter: @queerly_bel0ved), 34, queer as fuck, accepts all pronouns.
franklyn is a firm believer in the power of the arts to inspire, invigorate, confront, provoke, and disturb.
franklyn has been fortunate to participate in creative ensembles that have used theatre and storytelling techniques, as well as music and poetry, to address issues that affect communities.

“Is something bothering you, Major?”

“You don’t want to ask me that, Commander.”

“Why not?”

“Because I have the bad habit of telling people the truth even when they don’t want to hear it.”

-a conversation between Commander Benjamin Sisko and Major Kira Nerys, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, “The Emissary”

Hello.

I am taking a page from your book.
A deflection you have trained your hands to use,
And has been demonstrated in multiple forms.
Your “well actually”
Your “I love you, but”
Your “I’m just speaking the truth in love”
All variations on a theme, an oppressive meme:

“Am I your enemy now because I tell you the truth?”

to quote something making its rounds on the Internet these days,
FUCK. THIS. SHIT.

You are no more truthful than the despot
You handed the keys of this nation to.
Truly, you and he are the children of your father,
the Satan.
You are inconstant and unfaithful
A rainless sky over a blazing ground
The bullet from a gun
The pen in the hand of a politician
Powerless deeds and silent words

You speak of the same G-d that I serve
Yet I do not know this face,
This lesser fraudulent god you show me.
This anti-Christ who sees your face
when it beholds itself in a mirror.

At this point I feel inclined to ask,
Am I your enemy now because I tell you the truth?

You come at me with your sword and your shield
Your sincerely held religious beliefs
Your clobber verses
Your compulsory loneliness solution
Your insistence that I need a solution

But let me remind of you of G-d
the immeasurable One we await
G-d, constant mother
G-d, faithful father

We KNOW that there are storehouses
in the heart of G-d full of everything
of G-d and for G-d’s children
Yet you have set yourself
Without being invited
As a guard to keep the children out

This G-d who leaves the 99 to chase the one
Would G-d have even had to leave G-d’s throne
Gripped in panic and desperation
Panting and breathless and
Howling at the solitary moon
Making pursuit up and down
the crags and rocks of the
fringe mountain exiles
From Calvary’s peak to the silent grave
Were it not for you
When you spurned the one away?

We who wait for this G-d
will make a solemn space
We’ll make our home away from
Your sanctuary theatres
Your halls of power
Your empty Eucharist of
Ash and water
We will create a sacred space
A quiet place
Carved inside our hearts
For G-d to make a home in when G-d comes

And you will wonder and marvel
At G-d’s residency with us
We, banished from your high places
Made first at the banqueting table
And you will gnash your teeth that you had
Ever regarded us as the weaker.
And wonder if the “truth” you spoke over us
“In love” was worth being made the last over.

Am i your enemy now that I tell you the truth?