Kahuna

Cursed, he said, and marked her
with dog’s blood and ochre.

The madness will leave her
when the child is born.

Twins, stillborn—
their bodies not yet

fully formed, though
they had faces

like strange blue
flowers without names.

She came back to “the living”
—she was only nineteen.

Within the year a new
pregnancy followed, then

another, and another
and six more.



Susan Kelly-DeWitt | Mudlark No. 33
Contents | Molokai