Mangrove - A Poem

Mangrove
by Andrene Bonner  
 
Then the slapping became less predictable, 
as alcohol and weed coalesce inside his veins,
 
within his shack adorned with symbolic spirituality;
he—to pimp a sister with his anti-Babylon rhetoric.
 
Thus darkness of night delays the daybreak
and there was nowhere safe for her to hide

but for the loaded pistol that kept a constant vigil
on the tear drenched pillows beneath her head.
 
A stark reminder that divine love
no longer lived between those threads
 
of cotton sheets that once blazed with
youthful passions on this paradise island.
 
For to leave would kill the memories
of stories sculpted by bare footprints

on white sand beaches, under majestic mountains,
protected by coconut trees and laughing water lilies;

and days of grinding to the hypnotic sounds of Reggae music
and bass drums that induced the libido to violence.
 
For he too had crossed over on the dark side of death,
where tyrants refute the black woman’s immortality.