Excerpt from The Tales of Great Misery

Tale X:

Ull, shot his arrow in the crowd of what was left of the Orishas, his arrow

missed Oya of the Wind and tore the garment of Eshu The Trickster.

Eshu laughed and appeared behind Ull in a flash, and the wind made

Ull’s golden hair fly in the current from the whirlwind Oya conjured, as

Oya and Syn stood nose to nose. But this battle of brains between a trickster

and an archer would be one that Moon and her children the Stars would watch

and Sun on his throne of fire and Sky with a half cracked blue grin,

so, Ocean would join as well in her deep blue silence and Cosmo and his wife

Space in their castle of planets would be seated to watch this grand battle. Where all are

armed, and those armed will weep, their songs shall be remembered for all time

Ull with bow in hand steadied the strength of his arm and released

an arrow that burrowed itself in Eshu’s thigh, crushing his thigh bone

and from it flowed a river of thick bright pink blood streamed down to his ankle

and he hurled with frenzy and blood, a spear out of the hemoglobin

from his wound. It struck Ull in his shooting hand, breaking every bone in it

his strength of arm now shriveled but stopped him not as he grabbed his useless,

dead hand and ripped it from his arm. The blood appeared to be looking for flowers

to water in spring, shooting marvelous sprinkles that rained down on every flower in sight.

Our Giants had nothing left but blood and dry brittle bones that has been broken.

Eshu falls, with his face in a bed of anemones and Ull head now lays

in the arms of a family of anthuriums. Light exits as they both lie. Like a gazelle

Oya sprints for the body of Eshu, weeping tears of blood and mucus. And in all of Oya’s

sorrow the ruthless Syn takes Eshu’s body and strips away the glory that he would

receive in Death and without a tongue, ears or eyes, Eshu was to wander Sheol blind,

deaf and stupid. And as Oya’s sorrow turned to wrath, she took the spear of

hemoglobin and quick impaled Syn with the spear through her mouth. Syn was no more.

Oya sat at the defiled body of Eshu in Anguish and Oya took the body

of Eshu and planted his body in the red earth. Mother Earth mourned

as Eshu became one with her, and Oya overwhelmed by this wretchedness,

   

started the cleansing ritual washed her body with milk and honey,

and fasted by the Niger River for three days and three nights, then she took

a blade of an ivory knife and Oya let the knife take her, for

the death of her brethren was far too great a price to pay for the Golden Nebula.

From ash they came and to ash they’ll return. The burned and battered

clay that used to resemble bodies is now grey and lifeless. From clay

they came, and they will return to that same clay in ash form.

In fragments of what they used to be, a shattered image. And as ash

gets taken away with Wind in her frantic breathing. 

Misery, for Misery took Earth and Rue rendered Cosmo aphonic.

Heaven, Sky and Ocean, the creators of these Giants mourned in unison,

as they watched their creation forge Chaos. The serpent who lives in them all,

and in their ash, she shall slither but only for this war. A serpent of Misery she is,

slithering in the spring breeze in a bed of pink and snow-white petals, she slithers

and in this battle, she comes to ransack, massacre and devastate for she wants

the Golden Nebula in all of her beauty which starts in the springtime.