CONSTITUTIONAL INSCRIPTIONS
I comprehend the task at hand,
But hear me loud and clear when I say
That this option will not result in
the consequences you are looking for.
When that clause is invoked,
The chains may not grow tighter around
Our necks, but we will be able to measure the velocity
Of the blood traveling up from our aorta,
via the pulse of the carotid pushing the silver
a millimeter away every four seconds.
The key may finally be an earshot away,
But it will be an even longer journey to get
close enough to taste its ridges and notches.
So, invoke all you want,
But I do believe that the result will
Disappoint you when realize
That this cult was never an obscure coincidence,
But manmade and innate.
It has never required a leader,
Only that its believers worshipped
The words drafted across that manifesto
And that they exist to find ways to keep it
Stories alive in the smallest of communities.
So, invoke all you want,
But when the bell rings,
remember that we will not be picking up the glass shards
this time.
But hear me loud and clear when I say
That this option will not result in
the consequences you are looking for.
When that clause is invoked,
The chains may not grow tighter around
Our necks, but we will be able to measure the velocity
Of the blood traveling up from our aorta,
via the pulse of the carotid pushing the silver
a millimeter away every four seconds.
The key may finally be an earshot away,
But it will be an even longer journey to get
close enough to taste its ridges and notches.
So, invoke all you want,
But I do believe that the result will
Disappoint you when realize
That this cult was never an obscure coincidence,
But manmade and innate.
It has never required a leader,
Only that its believers worshipped
The words drafted across that manifesto
And that they exist to find ways to keep it
Stories alive in the smallest of communities.
So, invoke all you want,
But when the bell rings,
remember that we will not be picking up the glass shards
this time.
WHEN BLOOD DRIPS FROM A SPINAL TAP
Swallowing the gold was the
Key that needed to be in place,
for opulence to rain down,
And open the floodgates of the rapture
To consume all the things we never
Had enough time to process, nor digest;
The lesson is clear now,
that it wasn’t worth
The people we left behind,
That were responsible for keeping
the string of our morality
still hanging from Miu Miu skirts
Or thrifted turtlenecks.
Biographical Statement
Naa Asheley Ashitey is a Chicago-born writer and MD–PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. A first-generation, low-income Ghanaian American and University of Chicago alumna, she writes at the intersection of race, medicine, and belonging.