I PUT A SPELL ON YOU,
by Allan RozinskiIn the bayou country outside New Orleans
the old ways are dying out like zombie rot.
Did you know the Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau?
or hear of Doctor John Montanee, the Bokor Supreme?
—who could bring a body back from the clutches of death,
if a person could pay the price.
Still, late at night, you might find
a hustler who’ll offer you your choice
from a range of drugs to ease the burden
of boredom, or hook you up with s*x for sale,
done dirty in the shadows of a dark alley
or a room for rent by the hour;
but for those looking for a strange turn
off the beaten path, in the dead hours
before the morning light, he’ll take
you out deep into the marshlands
to witness a black voodoo rite.
The body is dug up from the silty ground,
the caske
