tank top blues

 

born day come
born day go
weavin cloth
of indigo

some say stop
some say go
hoodoo in the garden
startin to sew

nice n easy
take it slow
gooferdust powder
ready to blow

now she holler
now she fret
now she scare up
what she get

twice she scream
three times she chant
call a blizzard
rainbow rant

graveyard pickins
full of woe
stir n thicken
rare gumbo

mojo hand
caint work the stew
gotta think up
somethin new

haint n bogle
bone to bone
dancin wailin
all alone

wind she waiver
deep blue blow
up come underground
tor nay do

what was known
now undone
gris gris bag
n banshee won

Copyright © 2014 Sharon Elliott. All Rights Reserved.

Do not turn away the initiate

(Ogun Aarere ko ma se yawo)

 

 

 

danced since years in Congo Square
all alone
white skin flash
nothing to wear
singing
high throat conjure cry
oriki Ogun
machete slash
clearing brush
epo stained
rafia skirt
under cobble stones
cowries twisted round my waist
fed from marrow in my bones

Copyright © 2014 Sharon Elliott. All Rights Reserved.

Questions for a Blood Moon

 

 

Who colored the moon bloody and bald?
What haints scratched through the blue porch ceiling?
Where be hats of fog crossin’ hellegat* passage?
Comes walkin’ Igbo doctor with an asafoetida bag?
Is it Obeah woman or hoodoo man?
Or a black cat who gave her bone?
Or a conjure hand with no reflection?

 

moon
she smiles
keeps
her counsel
like a bloodshot eye
she mounts the watch
drinkin’ tea brewed from High John’s root
blowin’ tobacco down a spineless back
libatin’ whiskey
her crimson bootleg ‘shine

*Vernacular is hellgate, from this Dutch word meaning either “hell’s
hole” or “bright gate/passage”, indicating a narrow river (esp.
the East River in NY)

Copyright © 2014 Sharon Elliott. All Rights Reserved.

Charmed, I’m sure

wander to a river

find a willing giver

bison hair and eye of toad

covered o’er with dye of woad

wrapped withal in cloth of red

hidden neath a narrow bed

enflame a heart

that failed to start

overcome a misconception

impart clear angle of reflection

 

Copyright © 2014 Sharon Elliott. All Rights Reserved.