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Callaloo 27.2 (2004) 403


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Rituals:

The Baptism

Alysa Hayes

Father, dipping me into water,
your little girl's gone blue—
fish eyes all wide and ready
for the fork.

I won't ever stop breathing in
this river's blood,
this high current rumble.

From below
the sun is a good star
and we are not ourselves.

I know you, and I know
this is not you.
Give me a good push,

one good push down,
and I swear, poppa,
I won't ever come to
a man's hands again.

Alysa Hayes is an undergraduate student at Texas A&M University, where she is majoring in computer science and minoring in English and Spanish.


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