Rune Mere
- Rune Mere
all that she knew of love and past love the cord of strength, string of honey on her tongue, the heart silted, the stone turning under water,
the conch shell pink and smooth in the fiber of one page secreted, wind-congealed; burnt rice ink, holy water, washed words of the Merciful
his tongue in her ear copper coin to stave off envy, indigo mash to her elbows, a gauze cloth, feather’s skin: patience
buried spell in the shaman’s bead sack in the rocker on the front porch, in the raven’s yellow eye; tree-limb chair-back gone skyward
all she wrote was story word-weave the cloth that would make it so, spell-blanket, river-thread, cloud-thread
all what lifted stayed [End Page 210] in the blue lake, in the songline of her dress falling; body of mud body of lace
blue errand unweary hieroglyphic mending water song
Rachel E. Harding, a native of Atlanta, is a Latin American historian, writer and arts consultant living in Denver, Colorado. Her work has appeared previously in Callaloo as well as in other literary magazines and in anthologies.
Glossary
The Infelicitous Traffic
- The Valongo
-
during the 19th century, the largest slave warehouse/auction market in Brazil—several million Africans passed through here.
- carioca
-
of or pertaining to the city of Rio de Janeiro.
- o banzo
-
a life-threatening wasting-away due to grief and longing; often cited as a cause of death among Brazilian slaves.
- Os Prêtos Velhos
-
“The Old Blacks”; the spirits of the Africans brought to Brazil as slaves.
- Os Bisnetos
-
the great-grandchildren.
- Nocturne Oneiros
-
A Haitian Train
- serviteur
-
servant; a term used in Haitian Vodoun to denote those who are initiated into the service of the deities.
Oxum of Chimayo
- Oxum
-
African and Afro-Diasporan deity of rivers, compassion, sensuality, and creativity.
- Chimayo
-
Catholic shrine in northern New Mexico known as a site of miraculously healing earth.
- arroyo
-
stream.
