Bloodstained
By Francis Anthony Govia

When Auntie wanted a rooster
killed she got him to do it. He
tied the feet and wings, and
hung it upside down over a
water-tap. Then he cut off the
head of it, and the body
twitched. Life flowed from the
severed neck down the drain.
It must have been the same
emotions that provoked the use
of his machete to chop of the
heads of the garden-lizards, and
watch them crawl aimlessly
around the white-enamel basin.
He threw the lizards on me,
and Auntie said that they were
the reason I had nightmares,
but how I loved him.
Years later, alcohol took
control of his head, and turned
his life upside down. I saw him
twitch and vomit into a
basin. He reminded me on that
day of a headless lizard, and a
dying rooster.

FRANCIS ANTHONY GOVIA was born in the British West Indies on the island of St. Kitts. He resides in the Bronx, and is now a citizen of the United States. He was a recipient of Boston University's prestigious Trustee Scholarship where he earned his undergraduate degree. He also has a law degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Affiliated with Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), Fagovia (his pen name) has written and produced calypsos for singers from his native land. He writes poetry because of his love of the art.