Rumor has it she was born a gypsy on the streets of Palermo, Sicily
Then again, some say it was on the bay of Naples
While others claim she was made in New Orleans
under one of those giant trees
with roots that go down so deep
they reach into the earth’s center.
Trees with arms so long, high and wide
they come out and grab you
like the Great Mama.
The dark bark betrays our true origins
Straight from the core she’s come
with silvery lips, wide hips, menstrual blood and Oracular Visions
Part witch and bewitching
she refuses to be from one place or one race.
SHE travels… in any skins, many skins,
spotted like the leopard, black as the panther
white as the milk in her mama’s rosy-red breasts.
She is red tongues licking fire
a bold soul, an old soul,
backyard worshipper and gypsy wanderer.
Sicilian queen,
a dew’s drop on mint green
pure, liquid, mercury
the sharp in turns
the quick in glances,
a grain of sand in the Sahara
& between cracks of concrete.
She is the wavelength Green,
a fish-bellied, crab-crawling, moon-child
secret reptile, Virgin & Mean…the final curtain
the call before the Great Silencing…. a Global-eye, spy
the rhythm and the drumbeat of eternity
the curse of blessedness
all female feminine woman
Madonna- puttana, the funneling that germinates
Seeeeedzzzz.
The veiling revealed!
unsettling, rumbling, pulsating speech
earthquaking, rumbling and shaking like she
when she walks and sways her hips.
YOU got to admit she is Bee-loved
by everything and everyone.
Life’ssssssssssssss
final, exhausting, suffering moment
when the word is made flesh.
I hate to admit it, but I’m one of her devotees
this Evocateur of Haitian lore
a day’s last ray of sun
the light, a fright, forbidden fruit, Jew and jewel.
A pure love that instructs,
rising from the cavity of womb
instinctual patterning, dancer prototype
woman/ goddess- be damned
and man-made manifest …sting……
Earthworm creeper, digger of holes, deeper
The Holiest One, collector of insects and pets
the source of intrigue, the rage in rivers
and all that flows…
is Oh, soooo BEAUTY –Filled
an instrument of divine…
“mercy, mercy, mercy /me /”
mus i cal gal, pal,
Louis Prima’s sista
signifying woman!
(Winner first prize International Competition Canicatti Sicily 2017)