
Place Matters
by Hakim Bellamy / 05.07.2013As the inaugural Poet Laureate of Albuquerque, New Mexico (2012-2014), Hakim Bellamy is a national and regional Poetry Slam Champion and holds three consecutive collegiate poetry slam titles. Bellamy was recognized as an honorable mention for the University of New Mexico Paul Bartlett Re Peace Prize for his work as a community organizer and journalist and was recently bestowed the populist honor of “Best Poet” by Local iQ (“Smart List” 2010, 2011 & 2012) and Alibi (“Best of Burque” 2010, 2011 & 2012). He is the co-creator of the multimedia hip hop theater production Urban Verbs: Hip Hop Conservatory & Theater that has been staged throughout the US.
Hakim is dynamic, articulate and original.
Place Matters
Somewhere between
Metropolis
And El Paso
Is the rest of our country
Where we leap
Small children
In a single bound
With a single
Bound book
We teach them
That this
Is the land of the free
And the home of the brave
For those who come in 1st
Place matters
1st, 2nd and 3rd
Place matters
In classrooms
All about race.
Race to the top
And pretend no child gets left behind,
My behind…
No child left behind?
My ass.
Bringing boot straps
To a track meet
Is useless
We need shoelaces
And sneakers
To pull ourselves up by
Place matters
Undocumented
And unheard
Place matters
Because Superman
Was an immigrant too
It’s just that his eyes were blue
Even if he couldn’t fly
And Metropolis had a fence
On the south side
Clark Kent
Would be safer
Than a Canadian kid
In the Tuscon Unified School District
Place is the difference
Between a Whole Foods
And a whole block
Of Fast food, liquor store, check cashing spots
Like we can live
Off of sodium and saturated fat
Malt liquor, Flaming Hot Funions
And title loans
Like,
We can live.
Place matters
Like the difference between
Art class at the prep school
And class warfare at mine
Like time off from work and
Doing time
The difference between
Home schooling
And mom working
Third shift
On job number two
For you…
And being crushed by the news
That yesterday
You decided not to show up at school
And yeah, you hear her
You hear her when she says
What she always says
And says
“Boy, they got a place for people like you”
And they do
Place matters
It’s the difference between
Her being able to afford to ground you
And paying rent
Knowing that
When she goes to work
Yo ass is going to leave the house again
Place is the difference between
Latch-key kid
And homeless
It’s the difference between
Him having health insurance
And her telling herself not to get sick
Not to get sick
Not to get sick
We are out of place
Like a fish
Pretending water doesn’t exist
Because we don’t want to drown
We are out breath
Jumping into boats
Running away from water
Chasing after Cokes
Instead of running for office
We’re running out of votes
Instead of building communities
Foreclosures got us running out our homes
We can’t even workout on our leisure time
Too busy running out the door
Can’t buy no sleep
Tank on “E”
But we thank God
For the little bit of exercise we get’
Even if it is
Just
Running out of hope
Somewhere
Between El Paso, TX
And Metropolis
Superman is waiting for us
To find him
Somewhere
Families are migrating
From the Navajo nation
To get Internet access
Like it’s the New World
Somewhere
Poor colored folk
Are moving Uptown
Into the heights
Far from the flood zone
Like the Jeffersons
Thomas, George and Weezie
Like the Great Migration
We have have no idea where we are going
But it can’t be worse than this
Place matters
Somewhere
Between two large bodies
Of water
We are nomads
Navigating our lot in life
…or our little
By stars
And by chance.
Displaced people
When it matters most.
*For more on Hakim Bellamy and other Pan-African poets please visit Badilisha Poetry X-change, produced by the Africa Centre.

