DOUBLE HEADS: CAPSICUM ANNUUM

Games, guitars

Clicking keyboards

As adrenaline heroically

Breaks through the heart’s

Beta blockers

Poetry struggling to be born

Amid piles of paper goods

And useless cans of

Presidentially-declared

Canned chicken

Trying not to worry

About my well of semi-poisoned

Water

Dependent on electric power

All that matters

Are the words

Typing ferociously

Occasionally glancing

Out the glass door

Into the swamp

For desperate eyes

Watching me

With a full refrigerator

Typing maniacally

With a keychain pepper sprayer

Protection against

Those eyes

And I think how

Pepper spray is Capsicum annuum

Chilli peppers

An herbal hemostat to stop bleeding

And a savior hemostat

To stop the eyes

Watching me

In the semi-darkness

In a time of chaotic pandemics

But to me

In this teardrop of time

Only the words matter…

© 2020 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: SWAMP WOODS

EARTH DAY LIVING ALTAR

EARTH DAY LIVING ALTAR 

On this celebratory day

Arranging some of my favorite gifts

For Mother Earth

I see how life has slowed down

Instead of a burgeoning garden

I share a space

From across the fence

With the swamp

Weeds of Ipomoea Pandurata

Or Ipomoea Jalapa AKA

High John the Conqueror root

The lovely Morning Glory

Mother of many species

Circle of Himalayan pink salt

White candles for healing

Medicago sativa

Also called alfalfa sprouts

Growing in a jar

Soon to be between

A sliced pita with

Portobello and spicy mustard

Doused in Four Thieves Vinegar

All the symbols of Earth

In nourishing food

As the Ozone self-mends

While lock-down defeats pollution

Drenching the reluctant flower seeds

With Marie Laveau water

Florida Water

And Notre Dame water

I’m a Science person

But today, it can’t hurt

To eclectically call upon

Mystical knowledge also

Like paraphrasing Hoodoo Psalms for healing

And most of all

In this time of Corona virus

Crowning the threat to Earth

Sprinkling powder of

Sangre de Drago

For protection

And because it is never enough

I reach back

Through old family grimoires

To find Ena Drab Farmeko

The 9-herb charm

Used for venom

In my mind

Virus venom

The snake that has silently

Spoiled the seed of global population

And the Mugwort

Reminiscent of Bubonic Plague

Hangs from the entryways

Burns in the bowls

Of my living altar

Of freshly-gathered rain water

Where chants are sung

For the safety and health

Of a battered but determined children

Whose Mother presents counter-gifts

To make us strong

Again…

© 2020 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Living Altar