Goofer-Dust

(dirt stolen from an infant’s grave around midnight) Do not try to take it from my child’s grave, nor from the grave of my childhood, nor from any infant’s grave I guard—voodoo, juju, boo-hoo rites calling for it or not! This dust, this dirt, will not be taken at dawn or noon or at the dusky time, and if you approach this sacred place near midnight, then I will chop, one by one, your fingers off with which you do your harm. Goofer-dust: if you want it, if you need it, then erect downwind from a baby’s grave a fine-meshed net and gather it one-half grain, a flaky mote, an infinitesimally small fleck of a flake at a time and in such a way it is given to you by the day, the wind, the world, it is given to you, thereby diminishing the need to steal this dirt displaced by a child in a child’s grave.