" A man was catching crab one day and suddenly
he see his right hand walking away. He look
again and see four five crab carrying it away.”
- V.S. Naipaul, Miguel Street (1959)
Start with the GPS that can pinpoint the pimple
on the nose of Sairas hiding in the weeds of foreign
exchange | mobile? peek sneak, confirm . Not Prepaid
to care.
\ Whose tracers
dye inside tree lines ? where memes the fastest brooding
steam | up near our stellings Gao Ming forklifts stack
snake inyuh cutgrass drums.
Village walk
ways shudder under truck wheel hubris; passers
like on plantation grid hog ! side^scrape my middle
ride you try! mud^lock my Lastname.
+
Matched like old wood house frame baby face
daughters @love^sixteen disappear . for soft
serve again not seen.
+
Beach runners + our raftsmen done with river
tours warn ! flat on your stomach brace for dragon
fish racing up ‘n’ over castles, under sand skin
teeth.
\ Limbs husk^free of coconut
sippers they’ve found sea lanes Whose walls accept
our back stroke reach? swim champions now.
Meantime this aging millionaire offers trade – half
his fortune for ten youth^fresh years | lines of give^
takers; some transfer details to be worked out.
– W.W.
YUH RAP SO (4.0)
Now real parrots
& macaws were at their wordless squawking lot,
Their racket of pretending to give a damn
About the earthbound passage of the dumb worm
Of a man beginning to snake his way through
The base of their upper-realm hullabaloo
Neverendingly celebrating their gift
Of being able to wing away – aloft
Not quite up to heaven’s height, but to their bright
Feathered brief relief from their own dust-bound fate
(from “Raponani” by Brian Chan, 2023)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 