“…rearranged naked premises…naked features…
rearranged exposures of the susceptibility
of the future to the past.”
– Wilson Harris, Companions of the Day
And Night (1975)
The sum of fight, surrenders . smart or bare
head^pillowing legs; songs hummed to hush child
fears; the Minister, curve grooming. Who bears
the cost of air jackets . dotted ties?
\ Prayers for smile + note exchange in hotel
rooms; gunmen seen in cars chewing lunch break
choice; desert crossing genders. Who watches
over these numbers?
+
Keeping pace + head on neck – not since
the clearance of Genghis Khan, horse ‘n’ blade
rib rabble scything | now as if just one year pass
new Order shipped. Who waits that long for closure?
\ Elsewhere, chest vests that boom
loose bricks + IDs flying | unhappy with love print
device . Ave Maria! first fetus growing. What
happens in your country?
+
Island role players’ make up cast for part
world folding – work sleep, lines repeat; single Acts
bag feeding. What’s left with life to hew?
\ Ice melt, sun burn signals
sent like plea bargain; see Folder Old | mon Dieu,
What’s this ? stumbling out back furry, phone
light on rubble point | pants up . no, don’t look away.
– W.W.
YUH RAP SO (3.4)
The world's warring wheels were greased by unnamed spite
& yes, this priest was jealous of that girl’s youth,
Theirs – why the very thought of Judd’s one big mouth
Silenced for once by this girl’s two small mouths glad
To drown the dross of low words in the high tide
Of the milk of ecstasy et cetera –
The very idea of infants who would dare
To go beyond the pale of paleface-fences
Incensed the priest’s sense of the limp impotence
That broods at the root of death-denying rape
– The threat of which the girl now seemed not to fear:
(from “Raponani” by Brian Chan, 2023)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 