when I went to New Orleans last year I
visited the Voodoo Museum.
aside the lobby that had an area for
tarot/palm/misc. readings.

while I waited to pay for a mojo bag
filled with herbs and blessed for
protection and power;
a man walks in.

he looked like hell.

he rang for the reader
& she let him in.
they seemed familiar with each other.
I could just faintly hear him
beyond the curtain.

"I got the worms. I can feel them. they're all inside me!"

she then began to discuss remedies
& all I could think was,
"this must be a show." the privacy curtain
didn't conceal their conversation.

it wasn't until much later,
closer to recently,
that I began to realize...

...the worms are very real.

& they eat us from
the inside out.