It all started with a walk through a graveyard.
We came to sprinkle glitter,
we came to ring the claw bells,
we came to read the eroded epitaphs on 200 year old tombstones.
Instead we found a “working” aimed at killing someone.
A black bird without a head.
Lopped clean off.
Some kind of voodoo.
Consecrated with a dark blessing by a tombstone.
Naturally we took the bird home.
Laid it out back in the freeze.
It was a “working” aimed at killing someone.
A santera over on east King street informed us of the details.
Told us to burn it and take a sweet bath.
Told us to put water next to the door to catch the demons off our shoes,
tracking in all the demons off the street.
I put water next to my bed to catch the demons in my sleep.
I wondered to myself just what exactly was going on.

A cat got to the bird before we could
but it left us the wings by the fence in the yard.
Monica stretched them open and now they are drying in the garage.
A set of wings to fan the smoke once we light the sage on fire.
I didn’t have a good feeling.
I wanted to burn the black bird.
I wanted to stop the “working”.
I wanted to leave a green pumpkin for Oshun by the waterside.
But instead I only watched it lying on the leaves
out back under a tree
from the kitchen window each time I did the dishes.
Then one morning it was gone,
but I didn’t say anything.
I thought about other things until I saw
the stretched wings in the garage,
until I pulled the Raven card from
the Oracle deck.
Black birds came to visit me.
I was advised I better start getting crafty.
I had been diligent with the water by the bed.
I purified the demons with the singing bowl every morning.
I bless my demons in the water so they don’t use
my mouth to scream
and my eyes to cry.
But the raven came to see me still.
The one without a head, and the one in the oracle deck.
And the ones that fly around the power lines outside where I walk,
cawing and cackling in a crooked ******.

Fancied myself a priest
baptized by the Holy Spirit
home of the Sacred Feminine.
Found myself screaming in hysterics like a little boy in his blanket
after he's told nothing shall be as it was.
So much for the priest hood.
So much for the New Earth.
I pulled the Tower Card.
And that,
along with the ravens
and old man Saturn…
I had never been so afraid for my body in my life.
Now we walk around town and find bird heads on the sidewalk.
Starlings, and a little wren.
I learned my demon’s name is John and that he stands behind me.
Big and wooly like a wild thing on two legs.
He doesn’t fit in a glass of water
so I brought him to the Lemon Street Cemetery
and said bon voyage.
Buried him by a gravestone tree stump and said the prayer of two deaths.
The walk home smelled like ginkgo nuts
and the dust from the crumbing of the Tower hasn’t settled yet.
Now it’s as if I've been inoculated.
I lost my sense of taste for a week and didn’t break a sweat.
I’ve pulled the rug out from under my own
two feet so many times
that if I don’t learn to levitate
my poor tailbone won’t have a chance to heal.
Home of the root
Abode of the World Serpent.
I wasn’t prepared for what was awoken within me
that day up in the promised land,
and it's been climbing my spine ever since.
Now I bless the water by my bedside every night
in case John comes back to roost.

I cover my floors with happy feet
I paint the walls with candle light
I light frankincense and tie prayers to the smoke
I watch them float to heaven
I ring a singing bowl
I put the demons in the water and I drink them.

1.5 oz Bulleit Rye
0.5 oz Gallo Extra Dry Vermouth
0.25 oz Mezzetta Olive Juice
3 dashes Angostura Bitters
Stir with
3 cold Mezzetta Garlic Stuffed Olives
on a Frankie's swizzle

Drink this and remember me
It is the depth of my sorrow
The shallowness of my pain
The blood of my anger
My testament
Bear witness
to the sins of my father
Writ in the ugliness of me
Drink this and shudder
It is my undoing
The unraveling of light
A consummation of the dark

Drink this and remember me

Only a man can be truly alone
A woman has inherent value
But a man
Is only valuable as to what he can provide

Yes , "if not for you"
Then comes all the banter
All of the glory
That we so undeservingly
deserved

I once surprised a waterbug (actually a roach only tinier) on my kitchen counter . I grabbed a handy jar and lid and scraped the pest into the jar intent on its oblivion . I left it on the counter intending to starve it to death . After a week had gone by it's exoskeleton turned white . All movement had stopped but it was still alive . To me it appeared it was in a state of meditation , motionless as if contemplating the most cosmic questions imaginable . This went on for another week before I began to respect the dignity of this amazing insect . Then I felt compassion and regret over what I had done so I put a drop of water in the jar to see what would happen . At first the insect remained motionless then went over to the water but stopped right at the edge and to me it appeared to give thanks before drinking any . I thought that was strange so I put a piece of bread in to see what would happen next . The same thing again happened . At first nothing and then the approach and stop and again the appearance of grace before consuming . I was so impressed I let it go after it had had its fill . Then I realized we are waterbugs compared to God and we are put into a jar here on Earth and we are starved for the words of God (Ye shall not live by bread alone but by every word that commeth from the mouth of God) and finally we are to give thanks for everything we receive in exchange for love , grace , forgiveness and ultimately life .

Gathered up the sticks and stones,
metalic chains that tied down  bones.
twist gibberish from  mithered mind,
poisonous scolpamine that makes it bind.
throw in  angst,  grief ,abuse and pain,
the manic , depressed clown, sudden sane,
projections coloured, in black and blue,
silvered mirror, which reflects you too,
tapping feet, to tell his story,
vibrating, whirring, hate and gory,
tangled hair, in love and war,
left the house, she went too far,
Eve's cursed with all  honest, gentle, meek,
an act of love, was taught to seek,
not in public, lies, their great shame,
it's ***** ops, they got it covered,
none Independent to Post,
All is hidden in the Sun,
With ***** Mirror,
one cannot find
junk Mail sings to tapped Telegragh.
none Express the Times,
News reels out fear, in pantomimes,
bowed to the fiddle player,
President, Minister, Senator , Mayor,
dressed in copper, gold, inked paper, bit coins,
buried in weighted tonnes, aground,
strawman arguments,  plentiful found,
mutter mumbo jumbo,
about survival of fittest,
serfs was born, to be that hitlist,
elequent etonians, buzzing fabian tales,
once bolting cheetahs, now, well fattened snails,
More occult jibes, from outer polished cups,
with poisoned inner, She passes up,
If sinning became winning,
patient, with time locked down, spinning,
weaving multicoloured threads,
of too man-y voices in her head.
Found alchemical gold  in solitary cell,
Thanks to the Fathers Heavenly spell,
unravelled her story, from sickness to well.
Omnipresent, all round, all high,
nothing hidden from his all seeing eye.
Good things come, for those who wait,
lockdown will serve the meek and kind,
the architects soon stricken blind,
believe their own lies,
think their bots are real,
love is truth, for those who feel.

The Construct is Malleable.
The absolutes are undefined.

What we reap isn't what we sow.
Nothing is True.

For everything is right in its own accord.