Margaret A. Cox

Marronage

She sucked the cane dry
Juices seeped into her bloodline
and distilled the traces to her past
which he sought to confine
within her finite present

She had refused the position
Her eyes like cannonballs
locked cocked ready to disrupt
his steady sea green gaze

He assessed her condition
She had leapt from the Waterfalls
to corrupt the chain of command
He arose as the blood dripped
from his brow onto her lips
sealing them in unbreakable promise

They drank jelly water with the evening meal
that she taught him to spear
She poured libations Spear in hand she fell asleep
upon the sand Drifting across the ocean
she could not linger long The body and the spirit
were meant to be as one

His eyes were like a spyglass
yet he could not decode
the messages she mouthed in slumber

His hands crafted for plunder
did not take the chance
to release the rod from her grasp.

Life

I locked the gate leaving my Self behind
The alabaster stairs were hard to climb
As I dripped from the fluids of my crime
As I painted each step in shades of sin
Inhumanity buried deep within
Shedding layers of burnt resentment
Patiently awaiting final judgment.