Prayer on the Eve of St. Agnes

 Marie Laveau:
 Call your daughters
 to the circle of
 their future lives!
  
 Sisters: 
 Crowd around
 like thunder clouds.
 Join hands.
  
 Dance,
 and let moonbeams at your feet
 conjure up 
 the unsuspecting Mississippi Sound.
  
 Sugar,
 mingled with jasmine perfume,
 pink candles, and lilies like lambs:
 Grant us dreams
 of our beloveds.
  
 Fingertips to lips
 hands pressed to tombs—
 touching names chiseled there
 a hundred years ago,
 but not forgotten.
  
 Say,
 I have something!
 I have something
 to say--