AYAHUASCA
Taken from my collection of Amazon-inspired poetry titled 'Amazonas'
“Tell me, nephew,
Tell me what you saw.”
“Oh, uncle, uncle,
I saw enormous snakes.”
“They were two blood snakes
Standing there”
“Yes, yes, blood snakes standing
And hissing there.”
“Two maninkari spirits spitting
Venom and pollution.”
“Yes, uncle, spitting pollution,
I felt very sick”
“You were drunk and you were sick,
All the pollution came from your body.”
“Oh, uncle, I threw up,
I vomited all over the place.”
“It fell to the ground
Where you vomited it up.”
“Yes, yes, it fell right there,
Where my feet are.”
“And you looked up from the ground,
Seeing two blood snakes.”
“Oh, uncle, I saw two snakes,
Writhing like bad maninkari.”
“They writhed together, those maninkari,
Our fellows long ago.”
“Just there they writhed,
Where my belly is.”
“Yes, hidden like Avieri they were,
And when you saw them you got scared.”
“No, no, uncle, I was sick,
I wasn’t frightened.”
“It was Ronín,
The maninkari Ronín you saw.”
“Yes, uncle, Ronín I saw,
The one that leads to the sky.”
“Two snakes like Ronín spitting and hissing,
The ladder that leads up to the sky.”
“Exactly like that, uncle,
That’s how I saw them.”
“The mother of ayahuasca you saw,
That’s why you could see them.”
“Yes, yes, uncle, I was so drunk
With ayahuasca and tobacco.”
“My nephew, the grandmother of tobacco
Is also Ronín leading to the sky.”
“Oh, uncle, uncle, that’s true, true,
The mother of ayahuasca and tobacco.”
“We only see them, only Ronín,
With ayahuasca and tobacco.”
“Oh, yes, uncle, I saw them,
I saw them both!”
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