--
p.19, Love in a Handful of Dust by Kirk Ramdath
– Poem, "lioness"
Keep this browser tab open to save your page.
--
Previous (p.18) | Contents | Next (p.20)
unlit streets of unwalked memories
awaken – suddenly i am shaking
the gods of poetry demand only truth
but they demand it
they shine a light
on a single mother with two small babes
the sacrifices she made –
her youth, but not her beauty
life was hard
but my mother never cried
never cried for her struggle
or said the cost of us
was too high
trinidad is the land of the hummingbird
not the land of opportunity
a queen takes her family to calgary
and gets a job at the bottom of the food chain
you've never seen such exquisite hands
flip a burger –
in junior high i wanted brand name jeans
my mother bought my first levi's
they had orange tabs
instead of red
small difference
but good enough for ridicule
good enough for kids to ask me if i was poor
good enough for me to resent my mother
for failing to provide
the tools i needed
to be cool
i did not see
i have a mother with a love so fierce
she is a lioness
memory stirred like a pot of callaloo
shifts to 2004
mother and son together in trinidad
for the first time since 1989
we drive through prince's town to uncle emil's
the december air is wet and hot
sweat comes from thoughts
we pass the house where we lived when i was born
a nuclear family going nuclear
ripe clouds burst like a pawpaw
and release their fruit in a thunderclap of rain
washing away the dust of old memories
stirred in my mother's mind
by sitting with the living copy of my father
truths i don't know
come from my mother's mouth
she tells her story
of joy mixed with
bitter betrayal –
rain stops as quick as it comes
the sky is caribbean blue
sun lights the tears that run down my mother's face
i try to fit this jigsaw piece
into a puzzle i thought complete –
not once the plucked string
playing for a man's whim
not possible
not ever
not my mother,
i ask her,
why did you take him back
time after time
she smiles and says
words i did not expect
he was my husband
and i loved him
Previous (p.18) | Contents | Next (p.20)
- Love in a Handful of Dust ©Kirk Ramdath.
- This website ©Florencia Bay Books.
Also from Florencia Bay Books:
