Poetry

POEM OF THE WEEK


God make me into a football

God I know I am beautiful

Made in Your perfect design

but just this once

I think You lost Your mind

Right now me should be a football

floating through de air

an flip in de goal chamber

at World Cup in Brazil

Me not asking for a change in genes

just to get on a flight

People all around in frenzy

Sovereign turn a mini Half-Way Tree

Town ah sell Brazil juice

I just want a chance at liberty

Dem could ah kick me all dem like

just to be part of the action

since Jamaica neva qualify

at least me could have equal participation

But de people no meck it bodda dem

dem a sell foreign flag anyway

GSAT pickney deh get free social studies education

People tun German, British, cheer for whomsoever dem choose

All me deh ask for is fi be a football

dat way me picture get taken often

an the crowd worldwide WHEN ME SEE ME ... shout GOAL!

- Helen-Ann Elizabeth Wilkinson


Shanty's plan

Excuse me Miss

Sir, just a moment please

Am asking you to assist me

As am gearing up for my First Degree.

Yes, Yes, look how small I am

But don't worry yourself

Because I have a plan

I am four now,

And I am just in Basic School

But pay attention please

Because I am not a fool.

I know what hard work is

I am just learning how to write

But I am sticking to it Miss

Because my teacher says am bright.

Sir, slow down!

Am talking to you - you know

I am trying to find out

How you think I can make money as I grow.

Don't tell me say me nosey

Or that me wouldn't understand

I am a very good reader

And I don't even reach grade one.

Alright, I see you have to go now

Goodbye Sir and Madam

I hope to see you one day soon

With my Bachelor's before I am 21.

Khye lee pu!!

- Simone P. Graham


Psalm 27: "Trust in the Lord and be not afraid"

The Lord who is our Source of light, guides and leads us.

The Lord our Counsellor in our difficulties,

Comforter and Deliverer in all our distresses, in Him we put our trust.

Why should we fear?

Why shall thou be afraid?

If He is for us we have no apprehension of danger.

The Supporter of our life,

He keeps us alive.

Thou wicked! Thou enemy and thy foe!

shall stumble and fall before thine eyes

for God will lead us through the darkness filled with sorrow and strife.

We desire to dwell in our Father's house for all the days of our life,

He will show the way in which we must walk,

showing us the hindrances that are in our way,

the oppositions we encounter everyday,

that we may be enabled to overcome for it is in His Light that we hope to see light forever more.

We are safe and shall be saved for Thou art our Salvation

Psalm 27:14 - "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart, Wait, I say, on the Lord"

- Cheyenne Taylor


No to murder

Like Murder she wrote,

a killer's sin is hard to forgive,

a bottle-neck event for the history

books of slaughter,

Jamaica,

my homeland slowly becomes soaked in a bath of disorder,

Imagine my surprise to know your reaction remains neutralised

as if death became a misdemeanour,

simply just news to be read and no tears to be shed.

Yet, beasts of the shadows

seek to dive under,

the veins beneath my skin,

as I'm fuelled by this rage from within

to hate and despise the killers of yonder.

Heed THOU words and I'm sure you'll remember,

God's hands are in play when you choose to take aim

and stain not just your hands but bury your soul in shame.

Breath of life was not given as

A prize to be taken,

Oh how my eyes can only see your demise,

For your actions are not mine to reconcile

but to God,

in prayer, may HIS mercy be greater than MINE.

- Rashaan K. Thompson

No to rape

You never take the time

To visualise

The pain your victims

Feel ...

Take a minute;

Visualise

Your mother's cervix

Being beaten like a piñata

Because some guy

Craves

The candy

She has inside.

Visualise

Your father

Hurling his rod of correction

Inside your innocence,

Eating away

At his own flesh and blood.

Visualise,

Strange hands

Gripping neck,

Gripping breasts,

Gripping chest,

As you grip

The last strand of sanity

You have left.

Feel unwanted skins

Against skin,

Tearing your skin,

To force their way in.

Feel that knot

In your throat

As you get gripped by fear

Then visualise yourself

Banishing

The thoughts

Of raping

Again.

- Melisha Murray


No to Child Abuse

Screams banging

Children crying

Time takes a while to heal

A child's pain

Whom do they run to

Who will speak up for them?

When they are hurting

Where to run?

Where is their refuge?

Where is their safety?

There is a cry next door

I have heard it before

It is a shrill It is loud then it faints

Should I or should I not

There is older men visiting that child

Who will tell?

That child has scars

There are secrets untold

They're not bold and I,

You and we are so afraid of whom

No one knows

That child has broken bones

Shall we report?

On the other hand, keep silent!

Poets Invasion

I'm a writer,

Inscribing water for the people on a burning paper.

Like a fire-fighter,

I'm fighting the heat of murder,

The smoke of rape,

Using love, I'm replacing hate.

To sentence child abuse to life in prison,

It's never too late.

Wait!

What about poverty?

We don't need it in the budget of our society.

Poets Invasion,

It is taking place now.

We're coming up, up, up

To speak out, not to speak down.

North - from the cage we're flying out.

Out of the cave we're crawling south.

Behind the shadow of fears for many years,

Like Hulk the beast we're jumping east.

With boldness on our chest we're invading west.

- Daron Chosen Smith

I was a child once NO NO NO!

I will not be fearful

Silence is not my defence

I fear no one

I fear no man

I an I radical

I am an advocate

Children everywhere who are raped,

Molested and beaten

There will be a time of confession

Time of tribulation

Poets causing a revolution

Writing the stories untold

Telling them bold In addition, we say NO MORE.

- Christena Williams



No to Poverty

Ask her not what she wants to become ...

For she's penniless.

This monster which breathes in her face is gruesome than the Loch Ness

No tuition = persona non-grata,

Whilst they rant about how children are the future!

Hunger swims like a worm in shrivelled fruit

Give not arguments but truth.

They may have empty pockets

but the tears make rich eye sockets

You hear not cries!

As the drums of your lies

beat out their sound

that they didn't want to choose guns

You fell in love with greed

And didn't see that their needs exceeded their means,

Poverty!

Spell it out but he couldn't even read

"Yes We Can" mantras but how do the poor succeed?

Barefoot and thirsty,

No qualifications - not working

He's from that area so you short-list him,

Education is key but he can't afford the license

To drive in the Jeep...

Trying to make ends meet

Selling her body is the end to the means,

Looked down on by society.

He's a drugs don,

She has no goals,

No cash = they forgot ambitions.

No food in the kitchen,

No bread on the table,

Poverty has become their best friend.

- Shanoye Norman