Rhythm and other poems

RHYTHM Feet Shuffling, Drums beating. The movement is fast, And the body gyrates While the heart pounds. It is an African rhythm that moves you. The spirit of the drum has captured your soul, And it is this soul that moves you. In time. Always in time. It makes your body jump And your waist […]

The Cat’s Claws (For Basdeo Panday)

Paranoia stalks the land like cat’s claws on a butterfly’s wings. Hush! Words are villains, Thoughts, treason. Actions denote revolution, connote deeds untold. Perception becomes reality in this land where paranoia stalks like cat’s claws on butterfly wings. The sun rises like a red moon from the south. Blistering, cracking, searing, tearing this land into […]

Afro Vision

I don’t want to want a past I never knew. I don’t want to want romance remembered partially true. I don’t want to wish. my lover was a panther sleek, black and strong let the CIA answer why my love wasn’t bulletproof and now my afro works like a sponge to soak up his blood […]

NAH MAN

Scum of the Earth – MAN! Liars, lovers, hurters users, abusers. Use my body to fornicate discard me when I procreate. I’ve said what I have to say… Friend, foe, come and go treat me like a bloody whore. You live behind a masquerade, your life is just a big charade I have nothing more […]

Restless

We heard the shouting as we walked up the hill. It was a man’s voice. “That is Ashley.” An iron pot came through the window, hit the dirt and sent a semi circle of dust on to the gate. “That is Cricket.” A saucepan landed in the yard. “That is Victor” Another pot. “That is […]

Issue 3

Afro Vision – Vanessa Richards AHHH! Feared – Abena Noel A minute in the life of Jack Saw Death Threat I Death Threat II – Kelly Bonnette NAH MAN – Alicia, Wendy & Alison Restless – Irma Rambaran Rhythm Untold – Alicia Paynter She Buried Him The Cat’s Claws (For Basdeo Panday) – Indra Indira Untitled I Untitled II […]

A Five to Ten Newsflash

Very early in the morning You lay out the plastic tablecloth, Which has become worn and tattered, Over the old galvanize stand Where you sell your newspapers. You put a sheet of clean plastic over the many tabloids you carry And you nervously fiddle with your spectacles While waiting for the first sale, the same […]

Red Letter

To live and die in Your happiest moment To create and doubt Your own truth To hold your life in Your own hands To let it swing by a thread To leap over the Cliffs of your consciousness And slash the wrists of your thoughts It’s like finding solitude Amongst the crowds and Quietness amid […]

The Long Suffering

I remember the days of hard work and long suffering. Days when my family and I shared an old one bedroom cottage house in the North part of town. The life wasn’t easy at all especially when Daddy got short paid couldn’t pay electricity bill couldn’t buy market goods and groceries. Waking five in the […]

He Lays on His Back

He lays on his back And lets me love him. I ask only that he let me climb The space that separates My soul from his, His needs from mine And that my kisses can wash away Every real and imagined fear That stands between us. I trace our history with my tongue Till I […]