Green trees reaching,Loose boards screeching,Sky stretched mansions,Gloomy dungeons,Fancy gardens,Ghetto soil hardens. Even where the roads are paved and neat,Cows and goats they walk the street.Hand cart, donkey cart,Push cart, car mart.Boy with scooter set on bearings,Perverts and their dirty leerings.Makeshift walls of zinc,The sanitary and the stink,Clogged up catchments,Security detachments. Church, bar,School, bar,Bank, bar,Hot tar,Need […]

A flower when in love with sunstretches her petalto arch her wingand kiss the windto high and sighas a butterfly

BrownMaHaGonyBrowngirlsgrace hot concretewith their presencetheir leather sandalsprovide a glorious viewfrom ankle to neckgreased with coconut oildabbed with sweatsimmered by suntheir feet brush the streetwhile their short cotton dresseswave from side to side In there walk their is musicthe rattle-tattlepling plapling plingof the steel drumas their brown eyesglance,blink slowlyto the away side,sizing up theirripple in thegiant […]

Tucked in the navel of the hillshidden from the incidental visitorexcept for the doctor birdthere rests a building of truththe gateway of Paradisethe passageway to the Kingdom. The gravely road leads right tothe entrance, and the lifted sounds ofHappy are the Mercifuldrifts in the fresh country airlike freshly cut grassthat floats out of the barnof […]

Mahogany womenliving statuesshaped with claybreathe crisp clear voicesoiled with aloesoft as fernaccented with reggae root Brown Brown bright eyessoak in every sort of thing Skin,finishedsmooth as butter Loose the threadand gaspas the hand of Godmockseverywoodenforgeryeverforged

She reminds me ofMother’s cherry ice cream –rich, ripe, and sweetflowing out of a skimpy conedesigned to hold one in placeyet like fluidflows out of course –sweet as sweet can be. She lingerslike a cherry stained tongueon a guilty child before supper Ahhhhhhhhhhsee my tongue is pinkbut mom knows it’s redUnder hot sunsweetnesskisses the mouththe […]

A’MERICA – The poem is from “Miss Lulu Sez” a newspaper column written by Miss Lou (Louise Bennett).  Many of  Miss Lou’s  poems can be found in her book  Aunty Roachy Seh Every seckey got him jeggeh, Every puppy got him flea. An yuh no smady ef you no Got family ovah sea! “Uncle zacky sen’ a parcel”. […]

Cooly standingby de airplane trackjitney-bus a Ochyright ‘ereto take you backRastaman a standwith rastaman dredand rastaman hatsitting coolyon his headwid a towel on is back

White teeth glintagainst mahogany skinlips stained by sugar cane juicebrown dregs tinted clayby the hot Jamaican sunbarefoot on the soft sandsoles callused by the dirt roads,Dreadlocks bounce in cadenceslapping his backas the placid sea breezerubs the giant palm leaves White sun deprived bodieslie in the sandSkin vacuum raysas opened poresdrain sweat like a leaky faucet […]

Yuh evva.. Lie down on a beach (in Negril?) an mek dream tek yuh life? Walk home from school in flood rains? Fix your roof in the eye of a hurricane. Guh to Reggae Sunsplash without knowing where yuh going spend di nights? Guh visit yuh aunt in TackiRack and di kyar cyaan mek it? […]