Part 28 (2/2)

When the new ones' fury filled our spines with hope, when we planned and ran, when we made quilombos away from the masters, safe in the balmy woods, when we drank of You free and in peace far from the coasts of the new land, You blessed us, Lady of Purification, You continued.

When we braided You, lamanja, Star of the Sea, with the Lady Maria of the Cross and the Spirits of the brown skins deep in the forests, when we knew You newer, wider, feasting, bathing, nesting us with the tender pride of the grandmothers we could never know, when You continued to undulate, Water Woman, our souls found a way to be quiet and dance.

When the rapes and the loves, Iamanja, made skins no more just black and brown and bleached, but all the shades between, when we were the people who bought our own freedom and the people who returned to the home of the beloved trees and curves, when the square-house people of Allah listened to our slave stories with shame and respect, when we became leaders in the old land, You, Protectress of Journeyers, You continued. When we were the people the law loosed from bondage, You surged, Lady Maria, You continued.

When we were the people in the new land folding like meat into broth magic, desire, and pa.s.sion into the wors.h.i.+p of Maria, when we taught You could not enter us if we did not dance, when we said the bravest ones in the world are those who love, You, Iamanja, Mighty Woman of the Ebb, of the blind swaying plants, of the seven sacred petticoats, You continued.

When we are the sisters and brothers of the many skins who gather in a house, when we, coming together, break the shackles of the city and hoist You up to ride us, horses galloping through Your waves, ride us, arms clinging, to meet ourselves, when we are the sweaters of ecstasy, the fish people of the deep, You, Queen of the River, Empress of the Sea, You of the Flowers, the Perfume, Precious One, You continue to continue.

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