Poems

Pain

A new pain has risen today

It has left me

aching and shaking

internally,

Everyone sees a smiling face

But no one knows I’m breaking

with grace,

I have no will,

to show my torn-up frills,

for sympathy is something I do not beg

I would rather remain in my own domain

Than twine a vine around my head.

There is a new pain that rose today,

It has stained my room with a loom of unbearable dismay,

I cannot find my own breath

Or even map out what words to say

But one thing I know is true,

I know I am alive, even with a spirit that’s bruised,

I know my feet are planted to the ground,

no matter how much I’m feeling down

And I know that I am human

and every day is not the same,

But it’s my free-flowing tears,

that release me from

this new kind of pain.

– Angela Yap Chung

Contain de virus

Tan a yuh yard, do tan a yuh yard

Weh mek some a oonu ears so hard,

COVID-19 de novel virus de pon de rise

It neva promise it deh ya fi gi prize.

Some a work hard fi put nuff tings in place

Fi help slow dung the fright of a possible new case

But each time wi tink oonu get it in oonu head

Se wah! De nex day all wi hear is dat it a spread.

School fi open, chu’ch bell wah ring

Others work from home, some nah do a ting,

Others de a foreign an wah come a yard

But weh dem fi go t’rough mek it so hard.

Everybady, all mi can seh is try play yuh part,

An guess wha?... the economy will restart,

Look to de sky an tink positive mi child,

‘Cause one day COVID-19 have fi stop run wild.

– Jacqueline Dawe