Taste of Essequibo
River
Habeeb Alli
Dec 09 2018
So late
I called your name in dreams
Laid bare on caskets of memories
The lavender rush at Christmas
Such lavish thoughts sought
Like wine drunk behind bars
By men who served country
The gates of the Lighthouse left half open
I see your smiles have not diminished
Only aged by sweet laughter kneaded with ginger and rum
Once you talked like a child in love
Now isn’t that Santa with a donkey cart out of Leguan?
People in Essequibo I visited
The thought of Cinderella country reminded me of you
How come Amerindians suffer suicide and the Indians have rice?
Where is the Blacks of Queenstown buried after Damon died?
This episode of togetherness
The once celebrated ride on open speedboats
Taken away by curtains and cellphones
I wish the openness of the lavender on rough Atlantic!
Season greetings they wish silently
Like an imprisoned murderer on death row
I shout Merry Christmas because my mother taught me so
I get the worse Trump that you could get- you don’t believe
in Jesus Christ!
Yesterday I stayed in the Garden City
I wander from pillar to post wishing your sight again
Under the Peepal tree with a book logged between your lips
But the seawall broke down and a century and half of six
races went frenzy
When will this craziness of shopping and gifting end? Giftland
so North!
The dance to parang and sweet pepper pot should be the calendar
year
End the hatred of who not to invite to the masquerade band-
its free
Let mad bull and Mother Sally sell us sweet lies till
morning come!
In Toronto, I stand on snow banks looking for Northern
lights
The sleigh filled with forgiveness, mercy for humanity and end
of wars
I strained myself lifting mounds of snow so I can see
clearly the skies
I was told by First Nation elders- the ocean and animals are
my family!
