Long Breadfruit Poems

Welcome to a typical 'Luau' spread. The first thing that is best to learn is the Hawaiian word, 'ono', which means, delicious. It's a word bandied about before and after food goes in your mouth....

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The remnant of last year’s summer bash lays bear on the ground
Staring at me without a smile or a frown, they just looked at me sitting on the big rock on the other side of...

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"Just live a little, Hawaiian style!" Quote by Hawaiian Style Band.

On the first day of Christmas, my tutu gave to me,
-- (and...) a-*Ne-ne-Goose-un-der-a-gua-va-tree.
(guava fruits are the best part of their diet--trust me)

On the second day...

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POETIZED BABIES

While beauty sleeps, there are souls upon this earth
that have never known her in her full beauty.
Many seasons have passed and her eyes are still shut.
She is hiding behind pavements of tar and cement.
She...

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It was a sight that I could not forsee
Ambushed by my own men at morning hour
Hands tight with cord and naked from the waist
A mean air on the Bounty blew unkind
It was the troubled wind...

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 If I went barefoot for a lifetime,  
shoes would be pointless.  
Toes ate board, concrete, grassland, shoreline.  
Me, Tarzan to pedicurist! 
~
 was poor but didn’t own it.   
~
Text-book...

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Ho Xuan Huong (1772-1882) was a risqué Vietnamese poetess. She has been called the BEST Vietnamese poet, a proto-feminist, and "the candid voice of a liberal female in a male-dominated society." 

?c Nh?i  ("The...

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While Beauty Sleeps


While Beauty sleeps, there are souls upon this earth that have never known her. Many seasons have passed and her eyes are still shut. She is hiding behind pavements of tar and cement....

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Adjusting Appetizing Palates.
I have sampled the variety,
I am the one who has tasted life;
The one who has had a taste of life.
Rarely indulged in the main course-
Seldom a full meal-
I come hungry-
To leave satisfied...
I want...

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I’ve seen black sheep set in Pongola grass

Within pallid seas, differed, 

Like black buttons on a white cotton suit;

Sheep are color blind.

A bee is fine-looking,

But there’s fire in its ass.

Can the wild goat trust

The adder...

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Dudley, how did you bat today?
Did you hit the wooden ball with rubber wrapped
Over the starapple tree and far away?
Did you ride your bicycle past Knoxwood gate
Smell the cashew blossom and think of me?
Ah Dudley,...

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Saturated with fish fry smells, Bar-B-Cue smoke,
rodeo dust and sounds of deep water blues,
with teasing frothing lace spread on the shore,
Gulf Coast birth breeze blew winds 
in sails to Caribbean Sea, Blue Mountain
berries, banana walk...

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Green fields of grass and black boys in white
Sir Lancelot and round table and frolic sights
The children of slaves so bedecked as knights
Spectators shadeless sizzling in fusion of light
O come let us play upon the...

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Captain Bligh was his name,
he ruled his ship with an iron cane.
The Bounty was the ship,
sailing to Tahiti, via Cape Horn was the trip.
At Cape Horn, after tacking back and forth,
eastward, was set the course.
It...

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Step by step, I steadily aged with time and wisdom.
I appreciatively obliged old bones to bow before kindred, king and kingdom.
Thank you mama for cleaning my snotty scum, 
thank you for caring when childish tears...

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The cock of day crow over johncrow mountain
Sun come bright
Like Jane and Louise shine eye girl
And light
Just drop from heaven like ripe breadfruit
I pull the darkness from my eyes
And look and see only one thing...

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There is no place like home 
I represent the black, green and gold. 
Out of many, we are one people, driven to succeed
Global excellence is our only mission to achieve. 
    ...

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There you are
Red, black, and gold
And in the wind
Your dress uplifted, the tease
Of hungry men appetite
For I have looked up your tree
With jealousy
At birds beaking your breast
And felt my tongue
Its passion flaming
Longing to lick your...

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Floating  Market on the River

A Thailand tradition 
Large sun umbrellas 
And boat roofs or hoods
And Asian conical hats
A bucket of cracked brown egg shells 

A grandma quickly whips up 
Egg, oyster and fresh, crisp...

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Our river runs low, unlike in Barbados, where rain graces the small island, turning it into a tropical paradise. Green pastures thrive,
 an a breadfruit can sustain a poor man throughout the year, while others...

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Here’s to all my champions, yes you, this is my thing
You are the yam, cocoa, breadfruit, cornmeal dumpling 
Pumpkin, dasheen, and potato, in my pot of soup
An excellent, poetic, supportive, pen loving group

You, David Smalling,...

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When you walk here, walk carefully
Walk without show of pride or class
The eyes are watching you hawkfully
Crouched in invisible guinea grass

Smile as you go, this is friendly country
"No problem" is the other motto here
Where thick...

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EXPATRIATE…
     (Apropos Soon Come)

Heard the chichi budo singing
in the banana walk; heard
the burro braying; and
the mongoose roaming the coop;
smelled the aroma of roast breadfruit,
ackee and salt fish; and
felt the icy cold...

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The melody of love sways in the evening breeze even the barking dogs move to its beat.   Tranquility  nestled in paradise  only found in sweet St. Mary 
Passion and pleasure found...

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Education grows into a market, 
where parents invest with avarice.
They want a doctor or an engineer, 
not a man, 
in return.

Artistic sense and athletic spirit 
are asphyxiated.
Teachers are accomplices.

Children smolder. 
They can’t see
Robert Frost’s two...

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