Clear Black Nights
By Elijah Elvin
May this night be black & clear as
ancestral blood rumbling in our veins,
cocoa-creamed comfort from crémas,
dogged strength of empty-souled street dwellers,
a fisherman’s calloused hands,
grilled griot hotly eager to fall off the bone,
iridium-rich plates our home rests on,
joumou that has a rebirth in each bite,
knowledge of lwa who lift our prayers,
Manman’s nurture,
oven-smoked plantains that are never too sweet,
quests to reverse generational curses,
sand-coated & sun-kissed scars of sacrifice,
Toussaint’s charge for unity of all Taínos
against vulturous fiends of gold & glory,
or the wòchs inextricably vowed to yearly zephyrs.
Bondye bon. Bondye bon. Bondye bon.
Elijah Elvin is a senior in Weinberg with a major in Black Studies and a minor in the Creative Writing Poetry Sequence.
