 |
|
|
|
|
Author: Guede Mazaka
Rating: PG
Pairing: None. Bo’sun pov.
Feedback: Good lines, bad ones, etc.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Notes: ‘Odu’ is the Yoruba word for the ‘signs’ of the Yoruba geomantic divination system, or Ifa. A version of Ifa spread to the Americas via African slaves and influences of it can be seen today in Santeria. For linaelyn, who just defies all definition. Happy birthday!
Summary: Earth oracle or no, he’ll carry it across the water. Poetry.
***
the veldt rolls out like yellow thunder beneath the skies
rustle crackle whisper crisp
the beast and the man crisscross their tracks in the dirt
one line, two lines
here walks the fused-footed man
here canters the cleft-hooved beast
in their steps, one two two two one two
in their fateful scramble in the dust
there he’ll read the workings of fate
later he’ll learn the sign of the devil
cross-bars, rolling gaunt eyes and blood baptism
blessing the iron chains that pin him
the whip that scourges the sun from his back
later he’ll learn the whine-warn of wind in the sails
water in the bilge
washing away the soil beneath him
not all the waters of the world wash him clean
wash off the rich black his land’s left on him
he crouches head bowed, knees locked in iron
and he marks the sound of ship-thunder
the sea scribes its own fate, then
wipes a white-nailed blue hand
drowned man
over it and writes anew
too quickly
he cannot read it
but his blood follows the pulse
in-one, out-two
beating beating under his skin
it’ll rise later and he will loose it
take a needle of bone and prick-stab-push
raise the writing on his skin
and need only a sweep of his own hand
scratch off the sweat for the ghost men
to read what works itself through the waves
but now he sits knees to ears hands metaled to ankles
and he smiles at his sores
for change needs no sign
but thunder
and he marks it
***