Hiʻiaka: Goddess Carried In Egg

by Ghazah Abbasi

After learning astrology, Chani,

penning poetry, Charles, 

a volcano, erupted out of me — 

just like Species (science-fiction),

baby bursted out of mother,

alien killing human,

only one or other,

racist, sexist eco-system

where one plus one is 

zero-sum.

Sacrificial goats for Eid — ‘lamb’

doesn’t quite cut it

where missionaries, bearing crosses, 

colonized the land.

South Indian Kerala sacrificed 

peppercorn, that other cuisines may 

live, 

relinquishing

place for ubiquity— 

an abstract win, if any.

I sacrificed my liberty, 

face pinned to the wall, ground 

between a rock and a hard face, 

the limits of the universe

and your petty, bourgeois agenda,

my stomach sparked a tingle,

vomiting up my chakras,

awakening my 

resistance.