SAINT-DOMINGUE 1791
Previously published in The Black Cat Magazine
The night hums with it
the hushed crackle of ozone
the shrapnel taste of it
pulsing in the muscles
shivering between the bones
the humidity suffocates, breath stumbles
but the earth dressed in bodies, crawls
beneath the many weary feet of purpose
as the night drags on toward dawn
they come with open wounds
they come without their mother’s tongues
they come with rage and flint
they come without their gods
the night is alive and speaks of death
as fires rage in barren guts, rise to throats of drought
while the mud mumbles sucking hymns of hunger
for the human salt of sweat and blood, an offering
upon satiated altar, they walk on
the ancestors do not remain in unmarked graves
the conquered do not stay sleeping in stolen land
the enslaved do not rest well beneath castles of suffering
the descendants come bearing the name Rebellion
they rise like sparks from embers
they are hungry like the flame
they raise their heads to a midnight sun
a whip of thunder cracks
sings the scent of gunpowder
cleaves the night air with a bolt
a battle cry of the severed tongues
a prayer to the pyres of mercy
a roaring fire of revolution.
Ariel K. Moniz (she/her) is a queer Black poetess and Hawaii local. She is the winner of the 2016 Droste Poetry Award and a Best of the Net nominee. Her writing has found homes with Blood Bath Literary Zine, Nymphs Publications, The Centifictionist, and Sunday Mornings at the River Press, among others. She is an editor and a co-founder of The Hyacinth Review. You can find her through her website at kissoftheseventhstar.home.blog or staring out to sea.