(Lyrics from Back Home by Andre Tanker) i went away / i leave an i come back home / i come back to stay / i must see meh way It feels as though every time I leave, it takes longer to come back. first six months, then nine, now ten– as if they have been grooming me to leave forever. I ask myself how people could leave for years and years and never look back? not even once? But the truth is, it gets easier. What is one year more when you’ve been gone for five? or ten?…
Carnival Poem I
(I’m not dead). Carnival Poem I The music whips you into mania And the sweat of the masses incites to ecstasy If religion is the opiate, This is the tonic. Sweet like cascadoo, Rush of power like cocaine, Addictive like morphine. We are the vessels The street is the vein Infecting all with Wuk-up-yuh-waist-osis And free-up-yuh-self-itis. It is a chronic epidemic Where the only cure Is to succumb to the disease; More riddim, More kaiso, More tempo.
Trinidad, A Love Letter
Tobago, I’m sorry, but you aren’t included in this letter. You are so wonderful and special and you deserve your own letter, but I am not the person to write it. Dear Trinidad, I love you. I love the curve of your coasts, I love the hills and swamps and landmarks that dot your form like freckles, I love the way the greens of the flora and the colours of the flowers take you and I love the way your accent dances across sentences and sings everything you say. You’re so talented and creative and intelligent, and you bring all…