#barbados
The sky is a generous grey, beneath whose pending charity, sentinel palm trees stray. Whilst impetuous Atlantic gusts, act as a guide to the tourist of Saharan dust, from our heritage far away... yet unclaimed.
And so it shall remain, for domiciled within Barbados' Summer paradise; I would ask only for the rain; that it might wash these seared whip wounds of Sun's splendour... away.
The fruit trees are as my family's; their abundant branches intertwine and then once more, rewind to form a clan. Yet, their want of leaves says to all, of the prospect of Summer's well-fed famine... they had made no plans.
So, we would ask only for the rain; that it might wash away the browned chlorophyll of a cruel Summer's plague. Much like nightmares... to be preserved only within the introspective and reflective archives of Yesterday.
Upon bent knees, I humbly appeal to the Holder of Divinity - Nay! I pray, for but a half empty, half full cup of rain.
Mar 6, 2021
Mar 6, 2021 at 11:29 AM UTC
Yesterday Was A Day...
When Things Went SMOOTH... !!!
Made Some Early Moves...
Cos' I Had Bills To Pay...
First Off Hit The Bank....
NO... NOT like That... !!!
Had To Get Some Cheques...
And Then I Have To Say...
One of The Management...
Approached And Then Said...
"Sir please walk this way,
what is it you're needing,
from our branch today ?"
He Took Me To His Office...
WITHOUT Judgement NONSENSE... !!!
We Chatted For A Bit...
About Bajan' Living...
Then He Set Me Up...
In A Way That Was RIGHT... !!!
Moved On Paid My Debts...
Before DISCONNECT Threats...
Were The Next To Be Sent... !!!!!
Next Thing My Man Called...
And Said In His... TALK...
That He Needed A Favour...
He Wanted Some Food...
That Had... ITAL Flavour... !!!
I Said....
"Okay cool,
I'll meet you in a few !"
So... Off Into Town...
No Time To Wear Frowns... !!!
He Made A Quick Stop...
In A Bar And Strip Spot...
And Then We Moved On...
And Hit My Mans' Block...
We Parked Up And CHILLED...
... Pon' Top of The Hill...
And Then Had Some Food...
To... HEIGHTEN Our Mood...
We Then Sat With Men...
And Let Talk Begin....
Music Was Playing...
That Had Men Relaying...
Their Views About Artists...
And Gangsta Type HARDNESS... !!!
We Talked About...
..... " SCARFACE ".....
And Snorting ******* !!!
And How... In His Case...
What He Did Was INSANE... !?!
The Next Thing You Know...
Dominoes Started Playing...
See This Is Some Prose...
To Show it's NOT GHETTOS... !!!
Just... Different Zones...
Where People Make Homes...
And Keep Their Friends CLOSE... !!!!!
NO... FANCY Stilettos...
Or BLING Was On SHOW... !!!
Just Cool Vibes And GOOD TIMES... !!!!
While Young Children ROAMED..............
Rhydems' Dem' Runnin'...
While Men Started CUSSIN'... !!!
As Dominoes SLAMMED...
And... BIG TALK Began... !!!!!!
Lyrical JOKERS...
Who Mostly Were Smokers...
Wid' Lyrics That Hit...
Like... COMEDIC Scripts... !!!
A Dog Got A Lik'...
of Food And Went IN... !!!!!
Then Women Passed Through...
And Played Dominoes Too... !!!!!!!!
The Mood Was Just COOL... !!!
As I Became SCHOOLED...
In... Simple Block Living...
That Is NOT FORGIVING... !!!!!
But TRUST In This Verse...
These People... To Me...
Were Cool And Happy... !!!
WITHOUT LOADS of Money...
And... Homes By The Sea... !!!
These People Are WEALTHY...
In... DIFFERENT Ways... !!!!
Their Children Are HEALTHY...
And Find Ways To PLAY...
WITHOUT... Iron Gates...
Up In Some FANCY Place... !!!!
As Day Turned To Dusk...
And Moonlight Came Up...
The Vision Was Something...
My Words CAN'T Speak of... !!!!!
It Just Felt Like NOTHING...
Could Leave Any BLOTS...
On Chillin' With People...
On My Brothers' Block... !!!
But Next Thing You Know...
We Hear...
... " Look A Ting' ! "...
One of The Children...
Had Quickly EXPOSED...
That A... BIG CENTIPEDE...
Was RIGHT BY Some Toes... !!!!!
Now As Most Bajans' KNOW...
That Means MOVE YOUR FEET...
And Move QUICKLY YO... !!!!
Cos' A Bite Is NOT NICE... !!!
And Can STING For SOME TIME... !!!!!
It Quickly Got KILLED... !!!
And Then We All CHILLED...
And Then I... Hit The Road...
As More Dominoes Flowed...
I Got Home And Filled...
My Eyes With A Film...
Star Trek Into Darkness...
But NOTHING Was Heartless...
Within... Yesterday... !!!!!
Today is A New One...
But These Words I MUST SAY... !!!
People... NEED To STOP... !!!
All This LOOK WHAT I'VE GOT... !!!
Because People With LESS...
SURVIVE On These Blocks... !!!
WITHOUT ALL The Blessings...
of Cash And NICE Settings... !!!
But THEY Are OKAY... !!!!!
And YES Have Some Ways...
That Seem OUT OF PLACE...
If Where YOU WERE Raised...
Was Kept................... WELL AWAY... !!!!!
From Hustles And Struggles...
That... MANY Have Faced... !!!
And STILL DO... TODAY... !!!
So You RICH FOLK Should Know...
That These People AREN'T LOW... !!!!!
And just Might Show MORE GRACE...
If YOUR GREED Was... DISPLACED...
And Just Like... " Ackroyd "...
Your TRADES Like Your Place...
Were TRADED... OKAY... !!!!!!
What I Saw Was PEACE...
And LOVE On DISPLAY... !!!
And That Made Me HAPPY... !!!!!!
Because It Feels GREAT...
For Me To... Now State...
That... BEFORE I've Aged...
... And Faded AWAY...
For A CHANGE I CAN Say...
It TRULY Was COOL To Have....
" One of Those Days "............
Oct 13, 2020
Oct 13, 2020 at 1:15 AM UTC
Waiting in Barbados,
For him to come to his senses.
The heat makes fools of us all,
Save for those used to its
Fiery caress,
Not much cooled
By the lukewarm sea.
Under the palm trees I can wait,
An eternity it seems,
Sipping *** straight from the bottle
Refusing the beads and conch shells
From the beach boys
By the turquoise sea.
Only when the sun sets, quick, surprising,
Its luminous frangipani
Red, thrown down from peach-colored clouds
And night falls soft.
Music from old Bridgetown,
I can go out and forget.
Then I dance to familiar, foreign beats,
Offered to the passing ear,
Pulling me further away from the northern frost
I begin to lose perception,
The moon and stars realign,
Washing away care for possible pasts.
But, waking up on the cooling sand,
Full moon, like an old woman scolding,
Silver-crowned waves roll in,
Irreverent, laughing at me
And I see I am such a stranger
To the land,
To the absence of him.
One last swim in the sand-bottomed pool,
Beneath the cliff, walls sheltering,
Limpid water caressing and
Crystal sun trying to blind me.
I must arise before I forget,
Leave here before it claims me
And rush back home to wait.
September 22, 2002
Aug 8, 2018
Aug 8, 2018 at 1:53 PM UTC
The sky is falling, the sky is falling
Or maybe, the sea is rising
And we’re all aboard a sinking ship
It’s only a matter of time before this reality hits
Who’s to blame? who’s to blame?
Everyone thinks they know
But what does that matter, as far as the reality goes
Who will save us? Who will save us?
A much more relevant question
Are we really prepared to take this medicine?
The panic is real! The panic is real!
And it’s time to face the facts
The ship got heavier as the old crew got fat
The time has come! The time has come!
To make the decision
Will we make it out alive? Or will we fail this mission...
Time will tell
Jun 11, 2018
Jun 11, 2018 at 10:46 AM UTC
The ugly poetess
Over the housetops,
Above the dry blades of the sugar cane husks
I have known fear, I have known hunger
I felt the pain of a nail wound deep in my foot
I belted out the blues like Nina Simone
An era of reform: the moments of truth,
On top of the hill, lies a village in Barbados
Acid rain, rooftop leaks on to my bed
It was a rough year:
only food sources were rice and breadfruits
We lived through it all:
It was my destiny:
To love and to hate them:
those old fruit loops
Through the eyes of a uprising poet
The curving of his pen,
Somehow, he made amends, he purge
the smoky air,
the disgusting sight of the pig pens
out of his mind
lack of personal dental hygiene,
the elders lost their teeth
Grinding down on sugarcane, while they
awaits the big meal of the day
Supper!
With innocent eyes and achy feet
I read so many books for inner peace
My stomach was empty,
but my mind was at ease
To dream big while aiming high
Marlene, Delores, and Linda
Known as the vanishing three
Migrated to North America
Where a Barefooted child
like me wasn’t supposed to be
Eventually, I know I would have followed
I have woven my feathers,
while looking upwards,
In my little corner under the old rusty galvanizes
.
At the old country shop the vanishing three mothers
told me that I wasn’t pretty enough to leave the island
Words of hatred, mere words of discomfort
I felt my wings tighten against my rib cage,
My tongue, glued against my jaws
From that day forward the poet smile against stupidity
And spitefulness, she too had come to
Eat her words, the old shopkeeper
The poetess enter another line from that era
Uncaring beauty without brains
Where are they now?
I walked with confident down that street
The misty air moist my skin
The poetess return to the Island of Barbados
Without the sugar in her blood..
.
Apr 7, 2017
Apr 7, 2017 at 10:51 AM UTC
our minds spin off on their own little threads
run away to make their own sense
since I took this blue
I think my picture must be true
but I'll wait to see if it comes
cause the fake gold is my own and it usually knots
About which we love to dream
constructing our own little covers
Turn laughing to see what the Real has brought us
So different
So similar
So perfect and fine in the loveliest ways
what I wove would never have fit me
But You do
Sep 22, 2016
Sep 22, 2016 at 1:52 PM UTC