THE ROAD TO ASYLUM
                                                       
                                                                               MEDUSA


we saw signs everywhere
portents an entire city would decipher

marinet atop the electric pole    dancing
dancing as she had danced on the walls of the citadel
during that siege long ago

we saw the word   END
gouged by flashfloods accross an eroded hillside

the end of what ?  
we asked
the end of what?

some thought of the regime
but it was the end for the mountains themselves
the end for the trees
the end for the rivers
entire regions entire regions without water
the end of the falls

of the springs trapped in cement straightjackets
siphoned off to the paying friends of power
the end of the little streams my mother had known
running down the back of port-au-prince neighborhoods

marinet climbs all the way to the top of the electric pylone
and   balanced there    she dances

she dances as she had danced 
naked as the canonballs that danced with her
she dances as she had danced
when she caused the enemy line to stop firing
she dances as she had danced on the remparts of the citadel
during that long ago siege
when she mesmerized the french soldiers

bemuzed as they were   medusa-ed
we watch her take her three step and then twirl
vacationing
high above a shallow hell.

                                                                    SIMBI AND THE SIREN

simbi: water 
meets the siren:
mermaid of the sea
on a beach where a rainbow plays underfoot 
beneath the wet surface of the sand
inside a place linking the bottom of the sea 
to the top of a cliff high and dry under the sky:
a cave the swollen tide will swallow

simbi meets the siren between two waters 
in a cave where a rainbow plays
they lie tangled and whispering:

the earth is tilting off course
what once glowed green turns brown

a burnt out garden comes alive again
because we willed it
because we want it

missionaries cut down the great trees
and so drained the mystic basin
now little fish run wild in the fast flowing river
the fishermen are disturbed

with our bare hands we deepen the river
with our bare hands we restore the basin
because we will it 
because we want it
because we remember the great sacred trees
whose roots cradled the basin
whose feet we decorated with lit candles and rhythmic prayers

the missionaries throw rocks at us
we continue dancing

on one side of the sea skyscapers fall
on the other side of the sea entire cities turn to dust

the siren pulls in her net filled with the sea's songs
and spills it on the sand for the river
she gathers the river's songs
and scatters them in the waves for the sea

simbi: riverwater  the siren: mermaid of the sea
between two waters
entwined and whispering
in a cave where a rainbow plays

above them high up on the cliff under the sky
roads crumble
and blue water fills the cracks

                                                boadiba