God bless the joint.
A tool of deepening,
Renaissance’d from history.

God bless my hands
for taking over my brain 
while I roll (pray),
experienced from every touch,
tear, 
and tear.

God bless my mother’s brain
Genius!
for so many reasons
but for giving me the knowledge of this motion.

God bless her mother
A spirit within me 
Paragon for my deviousness, 
memory contained in a storied name.

And god bless her mother’s mother
whose toes burned off in fire,
pain is now a punchline,
now a long story of mine.

To breathe is to be them,
live their lives passed down from scoldings,
affirm me the joyful child born against cruelty,
gifted with the ability to talk my way between knives.

Thank god I am them.