Duality of Dogma
By Nardien Sadik
In the church of lights,
where the nuns pray faithfully each morning,
beating even the sun in rising.
There is undeniable spirituality in every crevice,
every knee bowed a testimony to our God’s authority
and a defiant expression of faith in a country that would rather see
a Copt shot dead than alive and evangelize.
The invasion was only the beginning of a lifetime of tribulations,
but the blood of the Coptic people never ran dry,
despite many an attempt at erasure.
Presently, in anaphora,
a symphony of hymns sung by simple saints,
interrupted by the stubborn reminders of our captors
every day.
In a language forced down our throats, or having a tongue cut out completely,
we swallowed blood
and spat out Arabic coercively.
The sisters, unbothered by this they continue their melodies with a smile.
The act of defiance is small but powerful.
I learn what it means to fight peacefully,
turning the other cheek to
sing our next psalmody.
Nardien Sadik is a Coptic American spoken word poet and Georgetown Law student living in Washington, D.C. She has been writing since she was fourteen, weaving together themes of identity, justice, and belonging.
Photo credit: PF Anderson via a Creative Commons license.
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