Written in response to the prompt of the week at Writer’s Island….
Gin poured on earth –
Salt water, five lobed kola nuts
With palm wine.
White loincloth over
Bare skin, white cockerel held
Over head spun-
Seven times, Till faint.
Water, waist high
Dirty brown infused with oil –
Coloured sheen.
Orange plumes belch-
ing black smoke;
*Yemanja, the fish have fled;
The mangrove swamps have become
A deathbed. There is no fresh fish –
Pepper soup, no cassava plants
Left unshrivelled; No respite
From the stench of putrefying life.
*Yemanja, you have given –
And with the other hand taken,
May tomorrow be a better day.
**Iseeeeeeeeee!
*Yemanja is the goddess (derived from Yoruba mythology) worshiped by the fishermen in Jorge Amado’s Sea of Death
