The Holy Trinity, A Creed
I believe in the Holy Trinity,
that which is Black, Queer, and Southern,
without beginning nor end,
equal parts, all the same and yet different.
Eternal. Sacred. Sublime.
I believe in Blackness,
reminiscent of the midnight sky composed of galaxies vast and wide,
begotten, not made, in the Ancestral Lands,
remembered across waters through stories and fables,
held tenderly through rhythm and rhyme,
has suffered under death and destruction,
but has risen again and again and again in splendor,
in accordance with prophecy and desire,
in its complexity, it creates anew.
Marvelous. Beautiful. Divine.
I believe in Queerness,
who proceeds from Blackness,
who with the first is adored and glorified,
and is thus given shape and form,
as it too has undergone the plight of violence and brutality,
it transgresses limitation,
it subverts convention,
it is neither/or,
for it thrives with quickened love and passionate heat.
All-encompassing. Transforming. Limitless.
I believe in the South,
the creatrix of liberation,
the forge of new tactics and wild imagination,
while scourged by past and present,
calling to memory strange fruit hanging from poplar trees,
its future is sweet like honey,
smells of magnolia,
tastes of honey,
and feels of clay underneath fingernails,
like bare feet on earth and wind upon skin.
Steadfast. Hallowed. Splendid.
I believe in the oneness of the Holy Trinity,
that which is Black, Queer, and Southern,
which gives life meaning and magick,
and I rejoice in the delight that They bring,
and the life of the world here and now,
and the world yet to come. Amen.
“The Creed” was composed on June 1, 2022. As I watched my social media feeds overflow with LGBTQIA+* affirmations, I found myself wanting to uplift the most salient identities that I carry. This is done neither to negate nor apologize for any one such identity, but for me to explore how they, in this moment, are given shape and form by one another. For I have my suspicions that they are co-dependent. These aspects of myself rely on one another like the Holy Trinity of conventional Christianity, and if one were to be removed, the whole thing would collapse in confusion. This is an attempt at both articulation and integration, begotten not made. Like creeds of old, I see this as an invitation for faithful living, one which strives to live authenticity, unencumbered, and without fear. And as the old hymn says, “great is Thy faithfulness, morning to morning…,” may so too be our faithfulness to the mandate which God Herself has given us in being fully ourselves.
