Satan Be Gone
After Asa
The room smelled of sex,
marijuana and cough syrup.
The soft voice of Asa
filled my ears.
He said, blue birds are the children of the sea.
I smiled, my foot tapping
to the rhythm of Asa's lyrics.
He whispered into my ear Satan be gone.
as he tried to find a way into my skin.
I tried to tell him I'm the beauty
of roads and rivers,
I tried to tell him I'm the feather of a bird
leading a man to drown under the sea.
His first bite was a man
learning the secret of soft words,
his second bite was a trip wire
in the breast of a man
learning how sex is a room
full of drugs where a man meets his fear.
He said, Satan be gone,
as he folded his tongue into my mouth,
as his fist found the softest part
between my ribs,
as I became the angel Jacob fought with
as he tried to find home between two names.
He said, Satan be gone,
as he cried in my mouth,
as he understood the beauty of the night,
as his fingers carved a memorial on my skin,
as my body became a womb
filled with blood and light
and a man finds the beginning of a journey
is also a door to fire.
He said, Satan be gone,
as his fist hit me again and again
before his body crawled into a wounded animal
at sleep,
as I staggered into water
and prayed that water and tears
would wash the blood flowing down my mouth.
Copyright Credit: Romeo Oriogun, "Satan Be Gone" from Sacrament of Bodies. Copyright © 2020 by Romeo Oriogun. Reprinted by permission of University of Nebraska Press.
Source: Sacrament of Bodies (University of Nebraska Press, 2020)