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La Divina Pastora, Mother of Miracles

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What Noise Against the Cane
This chapter is in the book What Noise Against the Cane
40plenty notes come from dem ship flyin dey sail and country flag high high like cobo wing. Longtime, La Divina Pastora, Mother of MiraclesWe cast down our burdens at the feet of the Black Mother us of myriad stripes hindu and catholic junctioned by her body here in the southwest of Trinidad. La Divina Pastoraof disputed origin like all women blessed or caught in the latitudesof conquest and myth. Once a girl who grew to a woman before nightfall. Once a statue sprung from soil of cacao. Patron Saint of Siparia gowned in white and gold bestowing us with sight or husbands or whateverwe ask. We ask day in and out sweaty pilgrims with our hard won knots our battered backs our tears and haberdashery. Madonna Murti speaks to me through her burglar proofglass and in the creep of memory I lock the bedroom door against the handyman’s routine gaze. I shield my pubescent body. She too Bailey_Printer.indd 40Bailey_Printer.indd 4012/10/20 1:47 PM12/10/20 1:47 PM
© Yale University Press, New Haven

40plenty notes come from dem ship flyin dey sail and country flag high high like cobo wing. Longtime, La Divina Pastora, Mother of MiraclesWe cast down our burdens at the feet of the Black Mother us of myriad stripes hindu and catholic junctioned by her body here in the southwest of Trinidad. La Divina Pastoraof disputed origin like all women blessed or caught in the latitudesof conquest and myth. Once a girl who grew to a woman before nightfall. Once a statue sprung from soil of cacao. Patron Saint of Siparia gowned in white and gold bestowing us with sight or husbands or whateverwe ask. We ask day in and out sweaty pilgrims with our hard won knots our battered backs our tears and haberdashery. Madonna Murti speaks to me through her burglar proofglass and in the creep of memory I lock the bedroom door against the handyman’s routine gaze. I shield my pubescent body. She too Bailey_Printer.indd 40Bailey_Printer.indd 4012/10/20 1:47 PM12/10/20 1:47 PM
© Yale University Press, New Haven

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Foreword vii
  4. Chant for the Waters and Dirt and Blade 1
  5. Guesswork 36
  6. Ma and the Snake 37
  7. First American Years 38
  8. La Divina Pastora, Mother of Miracles 40
  9. Extra Virgin Olive Oil 42
  10. Woman in Dub 44
  11. Fleshed Cartographies 46
  12. Harriet Jacobs Grips the Silence 47
  13. Malady 48
  14. Dancing at the Shrine in Harlem 49
  15. It’s Risky to Love in the Season of Hunters 50
  16. Island 52
  17. A Retrograde 53
  18. Orfeu Negro / Black Orpheus 54
  19. Accent 57
  20. Ex(ile) 58
  21. Flowers Pressed to My Head 60
  22. Chant for the Waters and Dirt and Blade (Slight Return) 67
  23. Notes 75
  24. Acknowledgments 77
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https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300259872-006

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Foreword vii
  4. Chant for the Waters and Dirt and Blade 1
  5. Guesswork 36
  6. Ma and the Snake 37
  7. First American Years 38
  8. La Divina Pastora, Mother of Miracles 40
  9. Extra Virgin Olive Oil 42
  10. Woman in Dub 44
  11. Fleshed Cartographies 46
  12. Harriet Jacobs Grips the Silence 47
  13. Malady 48
  14. Dancing at the Shrine in Harlem 49
  15. It’s Risky to Love in the Season of Hunters 50
  16. Island 52
  17. A Retrograde 53
  18. Orfeu Negro / Black Orpheus 54
  19. Accent 57
  20. Ex(ile) 58
  21. Flowers Pressed to My Head 60
  22. Chant for the Waters and Dirt and Blade (Slight Return) 67
  23. Notes 75
  24. Acknowledgments 77
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