LELIA


LELIA


Lelia grew up in Jamaica
where music owns your blood
and blood owns all the money
but nobody owns the sun and
the kiss of the waves so

Lelia learned her power dancing
barefoot in the waves with Yanga
the Patroness of certain
West African rivers and of
the children of escaped slaves

Lelia's mama believed that
when a Yangawoman died
if her soul were strong enough
she could take possession
of her daughter's body
and so live forever

which is why when Mama
keeled over one stormy night
after twenty straight days of
packing at the fish plant

followed by twenty straight
nights of dancing and drinking
to the passion of dusk and dawn

Lelia ran down to the shore
drank salt water and painted
Yanga's names over her belly
then fled north to Miami

where she sold Voodoo charms
to pale tourists even though
she had never lived in Haiti

then performed anti-war comedy
with a mime troupe in D.C.
even though she had never
seen a shooting war

then smuggled holy ganga
and sang to freedom's dance
with Rastafarians in New York
even though she felt it was
her mother who swung her limbs

in the end smuggling wisdom as a
social worker in Brooklyn Heights
teaching her clients how to
find their own names of power

when the suits and badges
came by with warrants signed
by the local Mafia judge

One day a fat Witch named Gabriel
stepped out of a taxi into the rain
just as Lelia standing on the curb
had prayed to that selfsame Archangel

for either a visitation or an umbrella
but she ended up with both when
they both smelled the other's power
and ducked back into the taxi

Lelia rather liked Wicca
thought it charming if
a bit small in its magic

because she hated big men in robes
telling her whom to pray to

because she liked the idea
of a book that is a shadow

because she thought
bagpipes were hilarious

because Athena brewed a fine
herbal for her chronic bronchitis
born of her not being born on
the blustery North Atlantic

because it was about time
the white God put on a skirt
and sang in a lusty soprano

because Witches
also brave the tides
to kiss the waves

Once a week Lelia and Athena
the High Priestess of my coven
would take tea together or

sometimes she would stand
Lelia a bottle of house red
or half of it anyway

at the Lady's Horn Saloon
where Athena tends bar and
dispenses suspicious advice

They would huddle and conspire
cackling like a couple of Witches
over the days when women ruled
home and village and circle and
men fought only among themselves

and if I should happen to
show up that day with a few
choice tasteless guy jokes
Lelia would proffer slurred
curses to shrivel my balls while

Athena would hand me the bottle
to insert into whichever end
would give me more of a buzz
then we would all go home happy
and hopefully not remember a thing

Lelia never carried a knife
because she learned sharper
words to utter in private
when your enemy can't see you

or under your breath when
the New England wind blows
cold as lost spirits

until at last the bronchitis
squeezed the power from the blood
and Lelia coughed to death
alone in her maiden bed

and two days later a notorious
Brooklyn Heights beat cop
drew a bead on a rat and
shot himself in the foot

then an evil man who had kept
his daughter as his wife
was seen running screaming
naked through the streets

then three poor families
whom Lelia had once counseled
discovered money hidden 
in three different places
 
and that weekend fifteen
Witches held an Irish Wake
with pipes and drums and
fifteen drunken speeches

and Gabriel sang like a Muse
Mindy danced to a Reggae tape
Katrina bought the Champagne
while I wrote it all down

and after we fell asleep
Lelia appeared in a dream
to thank Yanga for giving
her the power of life and

for not giving her any daughters
so that at last Old Manta Morgan
her great-great-great-grandmother
could leave this mortal chain
and come home to the sea
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