Urban Voodoo and Santeria...
Blood Sacrifice
Yellow flowers charge with the sweet
edge of dark skin over white
hands casting shadows in sacred
transmissions to the beat of the thrums
on distant drums.
A nighthawk spans the skies and is melted
down to earth free of feathers and scales;
lungs and gills offered up as sacrifice
with warm blood. Iba Orisa iba la de o,
ase mojuba.
Cold rain crystallizes their breath
as they chant and shriek the incantations
of the loa from an ancient book
of sea folded paper once buried in a twist
of salted foam and wet sand.
The botanica in Washington Heights
holds the bare feet of the faithful
on humid linoleum, while over the city
a purple fog hangs rippled with the breaking
of intermittent sunlight.
