Poetry
For Jamaican women
If I in another world were asked
What sort of woman I would have
None else than a Jamaican woman
It would be without hesitation
Indisputably!
I have been around the world
Seen them from America to Arabia
But none prettier nor sweeter than she I see
She the mixing of the peoples many
All loveliness of all embraces
A Jamaican woman!
It gives me great pleasure to know what she knows
That she is wonderful
Whether she climbs on a market truck
Or dances at the Governor's Ball
Whether she smells of labour sweat
Or the scents of expensive perfume
Whether her nails are covered with earth
Or glistens with colourful polish
Her laughter is just the same
Infectious!
Whether she went not to school
Or from university graduated
Her form attractive or thickened with age
She is vivacious!
You need not go too far to find
She is rather industrious
Working hard beside her man
Working hard if she is single
Yet finds time to play with children
Chiding or cajoling them nursing
Guiding and nurturing towards their goals
Humouring the moods of her husband
And she likes to go to church
A worshipful mother and wife!
And when to career she applies
None may prove more applied
For thoroughly she plans with vision
And nothing or no one may detract
To work her plans most thoroughly
The executive chair to occupy
Or with tender hands to nurse an ailing child.
- Oren Cousins
______________________
Broken-hearted woman
Why can't my man love me the way I love him? Why can't he stand by me when my lights are going dim? Why is it that I as a woman feel so much pain? And why, when it comes to love and relationships, do I have to complain?
Why is it that some men don't know what it is to really be in love? And I, as a woman, am willing to make the biggest of sacrifices when push comes to shove? Why is it that I, as a woman, don't and won't accept the one who really loves me, yet I stick by the one who sometimes I wish I didn't have to see?
Why is it that when it comes to us women, men just use and abuse? Yet when it comes to letting go, we as women choose to refuse? It hurts to know that you really love a man, for him there's nothing you wouldn't do, and it hurts even more to know he doesn't feel the same about you
Just as we love them, they should also love us and then there would be no thoughts of the phrase 'ashes to ashes, dust to dust'
Some people don't understand the things I say, they would have to ask the Father above, but certain things I say and do, I do because I'm in love.
- Abi-Gaye Smythe
_________________
A mother's prayer
A mother's grief
Her son just died
Shot dead by a gunman's bullet
She holds her belly and cries
Avenge me Lord
Avenge me now!
The pain is much
Too much to bear
Justice now! Justice please
Lord Almighty hear me plead
My arms outstretched
Prostrate I fall
Lord Almighty when will it end?
- Leonie Forbes
_________________
Miss you mom
Waking up in the middle of the night
Realising that you're nowhere in sight
But just to be sure, I turn on the lights
Only to assure that my conclusion was right
I return to bed where trying to sleep becomes a fight
I lay awake trying to keep my head free from thoughts with all my might
Not wanting to think on how much I need you in my life
The fact that you're not here cuts deep like a knife
I've got so tired of waiting for you here on the staircase of my world
For you to see that you brought into creation this beautiful pearl
I miss you mama, from your sweet little girl.
- Li' Ann
_________________
My room, my world
I opened my door and behold
I saw a black hole sucking viciously at my soul!
Quickly I closed it, afraid I might lose it
I stared at the walls but they stared back with an intimidating smirk
Almost laughing at my innocence, my ignorance
The floor morphed into a fiery abyss, ready, waiting to swallow me up
But wait! My ceilings parted and lo and behold, I witnessed the celestial city
The heavens opened before my eyes
Elated, I sprang to my feet but then it all melted away, vanished, gone
Once again, I had ventured too far into my little world
My room.
- R.G. Williams
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