Tags
69, Harlem's passions, Marie Laveau, Mojo Hannah, Soixante Neuf, sonnet, southern witches, St. John's Eve, voodoo
Hang it [up]. Fifteen and catechistic.
Sixteen and masochistic. Seventeen
with your fatalism. Eighteen odd sick
years. I’m down on Harlem, who sighs between
my thighs. Soixante neuf, as the French like it.
We like it too. Harlem runs her fingers
through my hair. Somewhere out there the spirit
of the southern witches is singing hers
to life, “twice burned britches.” Aren’t we all, ma’am?
sing for Marie Laveau on St. John’s Eve.
Sing for Harlem’s passions and the red lamb
that rides the night of the ram. Sing and leave.
We’re done. Harlem is all over my face.
Lick me clean, lover, down to the last trace.
* * *
Notes:
Marie Laveau (1794 – 1881) was a New Orleans priestess of Voodoo, renowned in her time throughout all of Louisiana.
St. John’s Eve is on June 23-24.
memories of my ghost sista 
Like the name Mojo Hannah. Mojo is kind of mysterious to many, and Hannah is such a “normal” anglo name…they pull and tug at each other. I collect names, and use them eventually. One I found researching Dog Food was Hot Sauce Williams, a guy in Cleve Land who makes and sells his own hot sauce. But that name…it just rings strange to me…a thought provoker. I also stole a name from an Indian in Washington who wouldn’t stop fishing no matter how many times her was arrested…his name…David SoHappy. Loved that – into a story it went.
Later…
Names are fascinating things. I was looking through a 1899 listing of registered telephones in Lansing, MI, and came across one Kermit Pickle. The name Mojo Hannah actually is an old blues song I heard sung by Tammi Lynn, various bits of which pop into my head as I am writing.