Mobay Liturgy

Thunderhead brews

and bruises the bay. Muted

taxi honks waft through the windows.

Patois prayers in unison.

Bougainvillea, pamphlets, hat brims

flutter under a single rickety ceiling fan.

Coconut jellies, chewed sugar stalks

lie scattered on cracked tiles.

Someone hums and spits.

Bodies packed and pulsing in pews.

Sundew drips into cement,

clings sweet to foreheads, forearms.

Somewhere, the whisper of a salt crystal

from a gull’s feather: May it be so.