New Orleans dreams, and you

Drunk on jazz and daiquiris
on a street corner that  
smells of piss and vomit
sweat drips between  
my breasts as the  
psychics call
to read my fortune
 
and I can feel
voodoo like a  
love-spell spider
trigger my  
sympathetic  
nervous  
system  
into fight or…
 
Shhhhhhhhh
 
Everything
s l o w s
down
 
icy wind skitters  
across my sun-burned shoulders
 
and my pupils go  
opium black,
nostrils flare as
the smell  
(of you)
drifts by  
 
A scarred Haitian  
man dances shirtless  
in the street  
while the woman with
rainbow dreads  
draws Loa  
in sidewalk chalk
and sings her prayer
 
there’s a danger in  
the glittering beauty
 
teeth, and fangs,
and vials of blood
around necks as the  
vampires stories
ooze with the  
witchcraft  
and create old gods
with new hungers
 
and I can feel the  
tacky fingers of the love charms
fall down my back
like missed Madi Gras beads,
like missed dreams in the  
moment before dawn,
 
like missed fallen stars in a
deadly man’s eyes.
 
And I’ve seen the stars fall
in your eyes,  
teeth clenched,
serenaded  
by our rutting noises  
as your skin curled  
under my nails.
 
I’ve seen
(you).
 
I crossed the street,  
alone in a crush of  
slick bodies,
to the apothecary.
 
The show globes
were filled with red water
to let the public know
of an outbreak
 
and I feel  
(you)
my  
 
black magic man.
 
I feel a spell
like centipedes
slivered in my brain.
 
The night spins still
and time stops,
your beard
chafes my neck,
your straining zipper
imprints its teeth through
the thin sheath of my sundress,
and your arms
cast juju  
around my waist.
 
The show globes  
at the apothecary  
glow brightly  
as I turn
slowly
 
lips moistened
 
My mouth traces  
your jawline,
and I whisper
 
there was no  
need for magic,
love
 
I was already
 
(always)
 
in thrall
to you
 
 
I was already  
under your spell.