Not that he couldn't show kindness, but forgot
To not reserve that act for cute customers,
Some of whom he would even smile at, yet curse
His wife + daughter as though they were trying
To suffocate him rather than help him
On the ups + downs of the fate-wave of life,
Theirs they all shared: Wait, you tink dem young tings give
Two hoots about you after they use yuh tail
Fuh a free bottla Phensicks now + again?
What had Dilys’s mother meant by that hoots?
Words like that which the child heard her parents shout
At each other literally flew over
Her head, like blurred balls, only to smash into
& between the walls of that couple’s divorce
Masked as Hard Work, Drug Store, shuffling about: fierce
Caged tigers who couldn’t help grazing against
Each other’s bristling fur every now + then.
(from “Raponani” . a verse novel by Brian Chan, 2023)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 