with language repurposed from Jamaica’s 1760 Obeah law

Enquiring about a baptism
I call the stone church in a town
once named San José de Oruña. All my sins 
on a gallery of spirit’s house—
floorboards groan, louvres 
laden with dust. Cut my teeth 
on prayers passed through sieves 
of cloistered women. Those days 
I counted rain spots on sagged celotex, wood slaves 
languishing on walls. My face 
like a canefield aflame. Each unmangling 
opens a rusty trunk in my head—a mewl 
falls out, then another. Living room corner 
littered with yanked hair. Fistful 
of coils constellating. Clutched hurts 
by the throat for too long. I palm 
a brink, studded with cowry and bone. 
Smoke-tinged, shell-shocked: what wildness 
pounds on the hatch, crests in the marrow?

Conjure-born / wreathed in jacaranda and seagrass / slow drip 
of prayer / wayward believer counting Hail Marys / thanking Her 
for intercessions / times blessings swung into my face like doors / whole 
coconut for Ori / Yemoja Olokun consecrated soap / Marvin crooning 
do you know the meaning / of being sanctified? / reminds me of Blue Boy 
hearing / soca in Shouter bells / drum skins seethe / a wake of blood / I never 
planned to return to pews / thirsty for holy water / fingertips plunge  drench  / tacked 
onto a quilt / one small square flesh-toned / my exact shade lifted 
from my lower back / yarn-haired effigy / thatched with saffron and snarl / I took 
for me / I splay the belly’s ragged slash / tip out: grave dirt / alligators’ teeth / broken 
bottles / eggshells / parrots’ beaks

—Soyini Ayanna Forde

Soyini Ayanna Forde’s (Twitter/X) poems and nonfiction appear in ANMLY, Moko, Apogee, Cleaver, and elsewhere. Her writing was named a notable essay in The Best American Essays and nominated for a Pushcart. A 2023 Tin House Workshop alumna and Periplus Fellow, she received support to attend the Key West Writers’ Workshop and holds an MFA from University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program. Rooted in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, she lives, writes, and tree gazes in Florida.


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