Poems

The Edge

 

Her knees gave out,

Her hair fetched up fire.

Did you hear her silent shout?

Storm enraged the sky

Crying darkness against grey ire.

Her eyes lulled every tear

Her heart denied every sheer.

She could fall off

A step off the cliff

She’d crash against the ocean bed

And all her pain and sorrow shall shred.

But she’s still here on her knees

Drowning into the wail she has seized.

It’s pure deep agony

Like the floating beauty of the winds symphony.

I begged for her soul to drift apart,

I yelled each name that broke her heart

But I crashed myself to the bottom with the souls of tyrant.

 

– Simon Rosea D’Vinca

 

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Education

 

Education,

Di ruler of our nation.

Without it, there is no elevation.

Poverty will only bring frustration

To our nation.

 

Education ….

What a devastation!

Ignorance poisoning the minds of our nation.

We not knowing how to reason out a situation without abrasion

Or laceration.

 

School is the facility where you get the ability,

To become credibility or

To become a liability.

Man: Mi cyah get noh work!

Me: Ask yourself why?

Me: How much subject yuh av?

Man: Di attempt I never try.

Me: Can yuh read and write?

Man: Nuh really but mi will try.

Yuh si why! Now yuh si why?

 

Education, education, education.

How yuh fi dunce like bat an waah office work?

No sah bredda,

Dat nah goh work.

Education a di key,

So know how fi unlock it

Or else yuh ago always deh a di back from yuh dunce like bat.

 

– Kristoffe Lewis

 

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This isn’t love

 

 

Honey, I can differentiate love from dissembling.

And if this manipulation is what you call love,

I’m afraid you really don’t know what love is.

The sad thing is that I’ve wasted my love on you.

 

 

Your love is fictitious as the script of a romantic drama.

When I’m with you it’s like having a nightmare.

You say you’re concerned about my eudemonia,

But you make my world boring and uncomfortable.

 

 

Lately I’ve felt battered and abused psychologically.

I won’t trust you with my vulnerability again.

You walked out on me and now you come back begging,

I’d be a fool if I forgive you and take you back.

 

 

I don’t feel your affection when you touch me,

I feel that I’m being taken advantage of and used.

You display intolerance and selfishness.

And I can tell when you’re not speaking the truth.

 

 

How can you love me and discourage my ambition?

We altercate and have pointless conversations,

Yet you tell me nobody loves me the way you do.

Well, I’m telling you, honey, this isn’t love.

 

 

– Marlon Pitter

 

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Scars

 

I left scars on his neck.

They wrapped around him tightly like snakes would when they prey for a meal,

Almost suffocating him to death.

At the sight of them I ran out of breath.

 

Grasping for air

As his hands cuffed after me,

Then his piercing eyes

Pierced like nails in my feet.

Forgive him Heavenly Father

For he knows not what he has done,

He knows not of the beauty I will get

For the ashes I will eventually shun.

 

He bled from the wounds

I opened in his flesh.

And I bled from the heartache

That was excruciating

He was too busy to hear when

I cried “excuse me I’m aching”.

Those wounds weren’t fresh.

The love gushed out from each wound,

Out of his patience,

Out of his frustration.

And my love gushed out of my eyes,

Some see transparency in its fluid.

But it’s really blood,

It’s really love.

 

And I watched as they evacuated

Just like he did.

Leaving me in a loveless mess.

Commanding me like the commandments,

To love less.

He left scars upon the beating heart in my chest.

No treasure to be found,

Only the anger and the pain

That comes in pounds.

 

The empty promises

Still linger in the air.

And I fear,

I fear the day they will hold me captive

Because I care.

 

I was innocent but he sold me,

Sold me on bitter sweets.

Hurt and betrayed me.

Then he wrote his name

A cross

The beaten beating

Piece of flesh

He loss.

 

– Abbigail Mattis

 

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Loving You!

 

I’m in love with you

And that’s true

I’m ready to share I’m ready to care

Ready to wear and

Ready to dare

 

My lips get shy

My eyes get small

My heart misses a beat

I pull for the sheet

 

I get nervous in your presence

Don’t know what to say I’m joyful and happy I smile everyday

 

I notice you a lot

I get butterflies

My heart palpitate

Oh, I really need you!

 

By my side

At church

At play

In my bed after we’re wed.

 

- Marie T. Henry

 

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Posthomous Award

 

Yu get it.

Yu get it!

Mi place it mongs di flowaz dem.

‘Betta late dan nevah,’ yaw.

Yu get yu honour, wen yu ded!

 

Yu coulda doan get nutt’n to.

Dem tings doan always fair.

Sometimes is who did know yu, or,

Who you did know one time, mi dear.

 

Anyway, yu name get call out

Albeit, posthumously.

Dem state yu many years of service

Towards di upliftment of humanity!

 

All now mi still a pinch miself

Cause, wen yu name announce

Dat is di fus time, me, big smaddy,

Ever step into Kings House!

 

Mi sure yu woulda proud a mi

Di way mi waak up dignified.

Den, as dem reel off yu achievements

Euphoria reach mi pon all sides!

 

Woi! Wen yu name get call, posthumous,

Yu shoulda hear di crowd applaud.

Is den mi smell yu special fragrance

An tek time wispa – “Tank yu Lawd.”

 

Well, all sort a mortal turn out

Fi get dem accolades mi dear;

Di brisk, di majestic wid dem walking stick,

An di sanguine, in wheel-chair.

 

Anyway, yu get it;

A fine award, posthumously.

As mi seh, it mongs di flowaz.

Wah dem shoulda give doah, is some money!

 

- Erica Brown Marriott

 

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Prisoner of Love

 

Condemned he was behind and within bars of iron

In a condominium of rock and limestone

He would smile while others raged

Contented in his cage

Was it in shame

He often called her name?

Or might it I ponder

Be the other side of the insane?

Within this Apartment

We shared and talked of love

And life without parole

Bars of iron

He would say, remind me of the lie

That love dies

People die, but love never dies

It’s a continuum

Encrusted with virtues

Some wise, others refined

 

She wanted to go to College

I wanted Marriage

In anger and frustration

I walked away

Picked up a stick

And flung it hard and high

The light wire got in the way

A boomerang was on its way

Toward my love

A shout as I ran toward her

She held her ground

I was a step too late to save my love

She hit the ground

A gash and broken skull; she bled

And was dead

Guilty I said

 

They all tried to save me

But I knew freedom was my enemy

In this condominium of rock and lime stone

I am free to be me

To love her as she loved me, He said

Her last words were

“I love you”

And so was his.

 

- Lennox Washington Taylor