top of page

A Gathering of the Orishas by Geoffrey Philp


Fallen, salt-burned leaves

Mango blossoms in the yard

Osain's teardrops.

Water at my door

After days of constant rain--

The wrath of Oya.

A bloom of red tide

Six hundred tons of dead fish

In Xango's footsteps.

Along the shore's edge

Indian River sparkles

With alms to Oshun.

Biscayne's coral reef

White as Yemaya's bracelets--

Bleached of her mercy

In the dry season

Ogun’s breath sends sparks flying

To the Everglades

On morning TV

Hosts promise bright days ahead

To Eshu's cackles


_____________

Geoffrey Philp is the author of five books of poetry, two collections of short stories, three children's books, and two novels. His next collection of poems, Archipelagos (Peepal Tree Press), uses Sylvia Wynter’s readings of Cesaire and Foucault along with Amitav Ghosh's paradigm to explore the connection between colonialism, capitalism, and Christianity in the Plantationocene.

Comentarios


bottom of page