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I rose not like flower or like tree
Not like eagle's hubris in the sun
Old skin shed in the divided city
Last clone of a manhood almost done
      And so I tasted the salt that lingered in blood
      When the sea was pushed to the edge
      And the land was wet and squirming in mud
      I was in the litter of its self-knowledge

I know my city better now, where met
The passions of my birth, life is beautiful
But shallow here, much to regret and forget
But I will exhume me from the bountiful
      Shallowness and litter, I will my heart
      To the silent stars and write my life
      In words of truth. Montego Bay, let me start
      In you, the doldrums where the fear was rife.

It was not the wind, but the fire that sent
My mother descending through smoke of tears
Along the pavement hard without lament
And her three children pined at crowded stairs
       My brother was swallowed by the city's mire
       My sister's drug was her desire, she called
       Eight from her flesh to mother's feast of prayer
       Thank you God for your mercies that enthralled

That's context now, while I bleat my life    
From the ghetto's battlefield to stable and school
Something provoked my hunger and strife
Something led like a pen along the edge of a rule
        For I have smelled the cordite fumes of death
        And the magic scent of ganja on slum night air
        I from school have fled and gasped for breath
        Along a street where splintered blood appeared

So I dispense this news for you struggling child
Wriggling sand to walk out of my burning shoes
Soon I shall strip away the mask pile by pile
Promise you will dance, dance slowly to my blues
        I give you more than wax feathers for the sun
        For old Sisyphus by labor endless was worn down
        And did not see the rise sinking to the run
        In each man's failure another man's victory abound.
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