I was of an open mind
like a tree
that had had the singing blackbird
and remebering its orange eye moving among the white
crescendo of snow capped mountain
and pine clad slope
and the pretty pantomime of snow flurried winds
breathing dark laughter under the firm shut door
its cold inuendo like a draft across the plush carpet
a man is one
and a woman is so much more
but a man and a woman and a many blackbirds
are not one
and i was of an open mind pondering your return
when i heard that you had been struck by lightning
on the far balmian shores of the arawaken peoples
the crown of the Caciquesa placed by nits and nitainos
was melted then in the heavy storm and your prow
a mere tangle of charred threads and baggage best forgot
not much of which showed in the wretched mass remaining

but she of the night
the black queen who breaks her dark waters
i offer her homage
but she bears me no daughters
the aril is purple
the lineament blue and the seed it was white
a bright brown eyed boy
sprang forth from the browness of night
blood on the pillow
and spall of the womb
the waste of my coding
and your tears and your cries fill a room
small clouds are weeping
planets a distant discern the semblance of joy
they are wholly mistaken the mirth
for the still born of boy
though tragedy laughing
masks will be made and allure
and the sad sham will be polished to a drama
when i disappear
black queen i am not writing
to say how sorry i am
a woman may be honoured and gifted
but remember i a man
a man may have honour
to shower like rain upon ploys and on girls
and a girl may have honour
neath her panties and curls

she of the night
though beasts and apparitions leap from bahamian forests deep
the spirit of the thunder draws a long haze
across the silent secrets of the orchids and aphrophytes
its sentinels and its slaves are the lush rampant vines
and its suaves the petaled flora and their attendant humming birds
that glitter like diamante in the rainbent sun and green crystal herbs

grow your cane and mine your bauxite
descendants of the list of tainos
and hide among your sepulchres of trees whose span like
voodoo cathedrals arch ahead
and dig your women from their roots full formed
covered brown and dirt and taste the sweet molasses
cut the throats of chickens and drink the blood
and in your madness know this
i caught you like an eel
writhing and supple wet and strong
and i had the grace to let you go
pretty much unharmed
back to the lurid green waters thin among the scant soiled roots
pivotal among the gombo-limbo, the guayava and the key thatch palm
and like the rising swirling vapours in the morming
know that i too have slipped away
and take the reminder of our wisdom
and bear it inside you on your journey
for it is realy i who am struck by lightning
twisted and tortured from the trunk to root
and frozen in these cold wastes
in whose your foreign island i once grew
for you are beautiful still
of that i am distant shore
and in your turquiose pleasure
know that i am just barely hallowed ice
and inside its tortured husk
a wretched skeleton of tree and bark
i the polyp of the winters scars
the winds and ice whose weathering fingers torment