15600
Now that the war is over
and the armies have gone
very little seems as it once did.
At one time sacred gardens offered wish fulfillment
for any number of humanity's
dreams, and healing powers for its plaguing illnesses.
Now carcasses of voodoo dolls hide in the dark grottoes
while exclusive connections to
the trusted spirits have been
tamped down into eternal silence.
The old believer rummages through
the dismembered bodies
the stiff thatches of hair
the beheaded crones and angelic maidens
with faces looking up at him
in horrified surprise.
Through all the war years he held
fast to his dream of finding his beloved
sure they would be together again
when the war ended.
But voodoo became forbidden.
He couldn't find a mojo to work.
He bends to lift his cane
off the sunken grounds
"Just one complete!"
he implores the withered trees
that remain deaf
puffing poisonous fumes of modern petrol....
Haiti during the banning of voodoo from 1934 to 1987
