Poems
Order of the day
Peace retreats to solitude, as violence shows its’ gory head.
Hopes and dreams, before they breathe, are sometimes marked as dead.
Confusion dressed in various garbs is the order of the day.
Headless subjects grip a side and watch their leaders play.
They play with wild abandon.
It’s a party everyday.
Those too weak to frolic
Simply pine away.
Fresh rain, with wisdom, will decide to wash the dirt away.
Until then, those at the helm of vagrancy seem all prepared to play.
Partying, for them, is now the order of the day!
– Erica Brown Marriott
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No Race
No race none of that in this place
Ye that exalteth shall be abased
Some a dem think this is a mental or physical or intellectual race
If the truth be told then you will learn
Intellectuality is good but knowledge with service to my Lord is better
Because that’s the only way the unionisation will happen
And that’s all of my father’s plan
Middle class expression with first class potency
The journey begins and education inspiration with persuasive abilities
That’s the journey I’m on right
Righteousness exalteth every man and woman
Knowledge has the keys to fulfil our destinies
Read history forefather’s prophecy and then the truth will set/build your capacity
I’m going to clear the pathways, be ready
The things you do the things you say the company you keep
will tell who and what you are
Because some of you are some falling star
But I know that those from the flock that stray
In short time they shall find their way
With principles and good practise
They shall find their way back quick quick quick
The truth have to swim on top
Just like oil in water, so sayeth me and my blessed father
My Lord taught me well, and said,
Let your heart retain my words and live,
Ye children of the Lord and then you
Shall have enough to give, remember my name is poole
Swim, swim, swim
– Dwight R. Poole
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A copy of you
Is there a copy of you somewhere else?
Yesterday I beheld an unbelievable event.
A woman in a black dress walked in late.
The scent of your favourite perfume instantly filled the hall.
I looked at her, and I literally saw you.
I was familiar with everything about that woman.
Her presence made me want to slip away from the meeting;
I just could not stay inside the building.
You may think I am insane, but I know what I saw.
I almost died from astonishment when she came closer.
Her body was the same size as yours,
And she was wearing your preferred hairstyle.
She had your adorable face,
She had fair complexion like you,
She had your pretty nose,
She had your sweet sexy eyes,
And she spoke with a soft voice as you do.
I could not tell the difference between her and you.
She definitely bore an extreme resemblance of you.
Unfortunately she sat down beside me in the back row,
And a sudden uneasiness swept over me.
My heart was trumping fast and I started to lose focus.
I could not hear what the speaker was saying.
I kept looking at her and it sparked somaesthesia in me.
No doubt she was wondering why I looked so dazed,
It was hard to accept that you were not there.
I believed that in time I would get over the loss of your love,
And I have tried unsuccessfully to forget you.
It was the most frightening experience I have ever had.
I cannot pretend that it did not happen,
For I am certain that I was not hallucinating.
You do not have a twin sister and it was not you,
So it had to be either an apparition or a copy of you.
Who or what else could it have been?
I could not bear to sit there with her any longer.
I was getting emotionally weak as the minutes went by.
Suddenly I felt tears rolling down my face,
And that was when I got up and went outside.
I began to miss you more intensely when she appeared.
The dulcet memories of you came back to me,
And I felt you in my presence once again.
Was it a copy of you or did I actually see you?
– Marlon Pitter (Inspired by true events)
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For my grandmother
I see my Grandmother in every face
I see her in every smile
She’s there in every kiss and hug
That is given to a child
Every time someone dips their cracker in
Their tea-
It reminds me of my Grandmother
Or when I smell the sweet whiff
Of a hell a top, hell a bottom
It reminds me of Mama
I still remember that red church dress
That you wore to church at Christmas
And can’t believe
On Mother’s Day
Is when you chose to leave us
You were a servant of Christ
And even now as we tell your story
We know you’re wrapped in Jesus’ arms
And surrounded by his glory
I don’t know how
To stop the pain
And emptiness I feel inside
Since nkuku o sule
Which simply means
My Granny died
But I know she’s right beside me
Feeling all the pain
I feel inside
And know she’s there to comfort me
As these tears pool from my eyes
As a Christian
I must confess
To both the evil and the good
And how as we grew older
Sometimes we failed to love
Each other
As we should
So I refuse to remember you
As I would in my adulthood
And instead remember the gentle love
Of Mama of my childhood
So as I renounce
The enmity of time
And choose to remember you with
The innocence of a child
All I want to say to you in Setswana
Is ke a go rata nkuku
I love you, My Grandmother.
– Lisa Gaye Taylor