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Nebula

by Hakim Bellamy

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about

Written in Tucson, Arizona...yesterday. September 21st, 2013.

lyrics

Nebula – by hakim bellamy

In the middle of a high school parking lot
in the middle of the day
in the middle of Arizona

they stand
pointing at the sky
like it stole something

like a vending machine
that is a quarter klepto
and there they are
empty handed at the altar of it

pointing at a refund
getting nothing in return

so I ask them
what are you pointing at?

as the sound barrier
breaks their give-a-damn
into pieces and pity
they say, “stars”

and I say…
“Where?”
as I stand in the middle of a high school parking lot
in the middle of the day
in the middle of Arizona

and they say, “can’t you hear them?”
that star is called Apache
named for my ancestors, I think?
it means “enemy”
a name we’ve inherited
along with generations of this sky
on the brink of smoke and steel

then I say, “Well, what’s that star, then?”

and they reel them off
like rounds

Harrier,
B-52
F-15

and I point one hand at them
like they are lying
then put the other over my mouth
like I am too

“What’s that star?” I say
“We call it Blue Angel.” They say

F/A-18 Hornet
says Messier

my mouth behind my hand
is still open
wishing I could catch one of these fireflies
insulting planets and impersonating stars
take them out, trash-like
stop the sound of them circling us
like we are a pile of…

if these are their stars
I am terrified to see their gods

though the sky
is not the only thing above them
that they cannot reach
it is the bluest

every hair on their little heads
counted and crossed
wishing, God
wasn’t the armed, silent type

pointing their futures
towards the big vending machine in the sky

standing
in the middle of a high school parking lot
in the middle of the day
in the middle of Arizona

pointing at stars
that point back.

© Hakim Bellamy September 21, 2013

credits

released September 21, 2013
Hakim Bellamu

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Hakim Be Albuquerque, New Mexico

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