GUYANA – BLACK HISTORY
– By Leonard Dabydeen
One day me cross over punt trench
greenheart bridge only wide like me shoulda
me machete tie ‘pon me waist
me head-band tie strong
fuh steady me head
me bend down, scratch me big toe
waiting like mawnin’ cock a crow
in Goberdhan back yard
‘till overseer done make he list
me and Cujofuh cut cane
‘till punt come, ‘till punt come
quick, quick me squat on the grass
take out me calabash
with me dry-coconut
and me salt-fish
eat quick, and drink water
from the canal
and all day we cut cane
cut and bundle cane
load punt ‘till sun come down
skin black like punt
ashen-gray in Picasso color
in the truck I listen to the voice
deep inside my heart
how the dust from my black skin
one day will take me far, far away
on a journey of my dreams
from Africa, through villages in Ghana
across the Atlantic and Pacific
into cold, winter streets of America
with rendezvous in Canada
for my new generation
to make black history
a curriculum of their lives.
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