"They used to catch fish out the river
and eat the flesh and put the bones
back. They used to say, “Go back
and be fish again.”
– Ernest J. Gaines, "…Miss Jane Pitman"
Most everyone sighed, I know how difficult this must
be, or cried What just happened? You hear that
a lot if you watch old movies (search pre 2001 AD).
Alexa was a consiglierie hive connector, like an inner
voice prompt from beyond. Spools skin tight first, then
memory improve sticks, wires everywhere losing ground
to king Pins. Wish I could hang alongside as you float
through constellated air : thread too early . formed well
knowing your fail proof circuitry would come. Hard
to imagine new devices read . reject wall breachers,
fur pods for #me you? break through. Domains by
now have home lands reconfigured . found purpose
for Gold rules God speed I always knew something
was out there . d'Avignon nudity eye lines.
– W.W.
MARA
*IN UP-FRONT preto São Paolo, where Mara
Was essa mulata rosa, she was jeered
For claiming that the ghost of the ownership
Of ones body and mind by cowards with guns, whips and
Policing limiting labels, will never
Be exorcised out of the blood of either
Slaves no longer slaves or their undead masters ‒
This in her hybrid of Latin tongues sputtered
At arrivistes and aspirants still climbing
Out of the favela into the fel
Or ‘indigestão’ (as many called the Sistema
Financeiro de Habitação’s crédito)
By working at their studies and service-jobs
Like slaves avid for field-to-house promotion.
Joshing Mara’s confusão inglesa, some
Claimed conquerors Portuguese had not seized or
Ruled the same clannish way bullies English had,
And gave her more proof of their liberdade to smoke
In silence ‒ which she herself broke when she-one
Fell to the floor in a sharp fit of dança
De transe that shocked no body but her own.
(from “Charon’s Anchors” by Brian Chan, 2018)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 