Songs of Anisha
“Don’t Ask Me About Gods, Or Demons,”
by Nome Patrick
Don’t ask me how Ogun* tore the skulls of men
and sank his tongue to quench his thirst,
Ask me about the demon that caterwauls
in the palms of men…
A man picks a dagger and plucks a life,
they say he’s a fly that has followed
the stinking corpse of a demon to its baptism…
Don’t ask me how Sango** broke the skin of a city
with the inferno from his mouth,
Or how his axe massacred the streets of men
Or how his eyes sent snaps of lightning into spooky nights
Of sleeping ghosts and ghouls crawling into a city.
Ask me about the man that hits ecstasy
in pushing the breath of souls into a corner of pause.
When a man picks an axe and shatters the dream of a city
they say he’s a victim of negative mental revolution
that his head is a garden of gargantuan tumors spreading
like the sour breath of injustice in the nostrils of a city’s bourgeoisie.
The eyes of a boy down the street are a convent of demons;
His father is a song on the lips of a war lost
And his mother– a refrain in the lyrics of a pitched dirge
Don’t ask me how many demons scurry in this city.
Don’t ask me about the eerie demons
In Syria
In Nigeria
In Allepo
In those cities swallowed by crisis.
Ask me how to survive when the night comes
In the evil twilight of a wicked moon
Ask me which dance fits the rhythms of fear
Ask me which lullaby lures eerie hallucinations
Broken shade: a song for the dying sun –
the sun has gone with our strength, hope, pride
And the night is a sanctuary of demons:
Men of blood and fire and storm and…
[*] Yoruba god of iron and metal, according to folklore.
[**] Yoruba god of lightning of fire and thunder, he was also said to exhale fire when he is
vexed, according to folklore
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