Be-Side

Jamesetta - by hakim bellamy

The day you died
God
Stopped questioning
His son’s
Sexuality

33 year old
Nazarene
With no kids
At a time when
Men fathered at 19
And grandfathered at 38

No Mary Magdalene
No Mary Kate and Ashley
No Mary
Jane

Yes,
There were questions
In heaven
Bigger than
Does it exist?

And it does.

There was living proof
Every time you opened your mouth, Etta

Like a Black Sabbath
You had a voice that would…
That would make God
Rest on the seventh day

Just LIKE
God
Patting himself
On the back
At the sound of you
We admire

Stare at you
Like our own

Like our own reflections
Spidered in the mirror
Hungover
Because our Sunday Kinda Love
Didn’t make it past Saturday night

Fractured
Leaving us with questions

Questions like
“Why can’t I sing like that!?”

Questions like
“I thought she was in recovery?”

Questions like
“Why does it seem like
The most broken lives
Give us the most solid voices?”

The most complete
Most whole
Most holy voices

Jamesetta Hawkins
A name only a teenage mother could love
And she did

You and Jesus
Had more in common
Than single mothers
And invisible fathers

Called your mom
The Mystery Lady
And imagine
They pro’lly thought
The same thing
About virgin
De Guadalupe
And her kid
With the immaculate childhood

A different kind of prodigy

Had you
Turned around
And split
Like your name

Etta James
Is who you was
After you went blonde

After you were told
To take advantage
Of your light complexion

After you agreed
To dye everything
Except your eyebrows
Cause you wanted to
Look like a “bad girl”

You bad girl!
Bad enough to
Make B.B. King
Sweet on you
At 16

In addiction recovery by 21

Gone 5 days
Before your 74th
Dementia
But still telling
Anyone who cares to listen
That you remember

That when you
Were still a child
People used to travel miles
Just hear you sing

Perform your own kind of miracles
In temples
With money changers and prostitutes
A prodigy too

With a voice
As milk and honey
As the heaven you’re from

No wonder
We’re still addicted to what you sung

Because it comes from
The heroin in ya lungs

Going thru withdrawals
Since you’ve been gone

Now,
I’m the one with the weight problem
Waiting for your next album
Fiending without you
Cause we can’t hear you sing anymore

Celestial body
Long before Hollywood’s
Walk of Fame
Gave you a star

We weren’t prepared
For your hour-glass frame
To break
And leave Sugar All Over our floors

Said you…

“Sang the songs that people needed to hear”

And Jesus?
Was half “people”

And God was…
Disturbed
That his son kept a dairy

However,
God was
Damn happy
That his very good looking
But VERY single son
Wrote this
About you, Etta
In his diary

“You sang
You sang
Oh and then the spell was cast
And here we are…
Now in heaven
for you are mine…
At last.”

And that
Was the day
The angels
Got their voice back

Copyright Hakim Bellamy 2012

Premiered at Jazzbah Presents JazzBars with Hakim Be & Friends. 1st Tuesday of Every Month. Watch the livestream from ANYWHERE at www.jazzbahabq.com (Next Show March 6th, 2012 7pm & 9pm MST)