Liberian Literary Magazine February Issue 0215
Diaspora Poet
At the Mercy of Gods
We come in waves. Our boats, tiny specks on dark, fathomless oceans.
Driven away by devouring drought, scattered by quakes, typhoons, cyclones, wars, we flee, fish in a storm.
Propelled by dreams, we would walk on water if miracles could be bought.
We are swallowed by sea gods demanding sacrifices. Our dreams are coveted by Agwé, Osiris, Poseidon who wish to conquer man and land.
Do the gods conspire?
Jealous Wind and Sea pillage our crops withhold rain, wake Vulcan, fan his flames. Belligerent Mars whispers in man’ s ear, demands he bathes in his brother’ s blood.
Gods cackle at fleeing men. Ants in their eyes, they set howling death upon us.
Our exhausted Creator sleeps.
© Althea Mark-Romeo
Althea Romeo-Mark
Born in Antigua, West Indies, Althea Romeo-Mark is an educator and internationally published writer who grew up in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. She has lived and taught in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, USA, Liberia( 1976-1990), London, England( 1990- 1991), and in Switzerland since 1991.
She taught at the University of Liberia( 1976- 1990). She is a founding member of the Liberian Association of Writers( LAW) and is the poetry editor for Seabreeze: Journal of Liberian Contemporary Literature.
She was awarded the Marguerite Cobb McKay Prize by The Caribbean Writer in June, 2009 for short story“ Bitterleaf,( set in Liberia).” If Only the Dust Would Settle is her last poetry collection.
She has been guest poets at the International Poetry Festival of Medellin, Colombia( 2010), the
Kistrech International Poetry Festival, Kissi, Kenya( 2014) and The Antigua and Barbuda Review of Books 10 th Anniversary Conference, Antigua and Barbuda( 2015)
She has been published in the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the USA, Germany, Norway, the UK, India, Colombia, Kenya, Liberia and Switzerland.
More publishing history can be found at her blog site:
www. aromaproductions. bl ogspot. com
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