THE OLD BELIEVER A Haitian Tale

Now that the war is over

and the armies have gone

very little seems as it once did.

At one time sacred gardens offered wish fulfillment

for any number of humanity's 

dreams, and healing powers for its plaguing illnesses.

Now carcasses of voodoo dolls hide in the dark grottoes

while exclusive connections to

the trusted spirits have been

tamped down into eternal silence.

The old believer rummages through 

the dismembered bodies

the stiff thatches of hair

the beheaded crones and angelic maidens

with faces looking up at him

in horrified surprise.

Through all the war years he held

fast to his dream of finding his beloved

sure they would be together again

when the war ended.

But voodoo became forbidden.

He couldn't find a mojo to work.

He bends to lift his cane

off the sunken grounds

"Just one complete!"

he implores the withered trees

that remain deaf

puffing poisonous fumes of modern petrol....

Haiti during the banning of voodoo from 1934 to 1987