Poems

MI BLACK

Mi seh mi Black, mi Black, mi Black

Mi blood . . . line Black!

Mi use fi si mi granny

Bwile dutty clothes inna zinc pan

Wood fyah blaze an di zinc pan tun black

But guess wha?

Fi mi Blackness nuff-nuff blacka dan dat

Mi come from Dinkinesh, di original First Lady

Shi black laka tar, but nuh call mi nuh tar baby

For mi royal an noble like Nanny an Bogle

Mi Black like Mama Africa

Axum, Kemet an Kush

Mi Black like Haile Selassie

Black like Marcus Garvey

Mi Black like Lumumba an Nkrumah

Like Ibrahim Traore an Thomas Sankara

Mi know fi mi Blackness matter

Mi Black like Sista Assata

Mi Black like a panther

Mi Black like Jankunu

Mi Black like Sista Kabu

Mi Black like Mutabaruka

Mi Black like Professor Carolyn Cooper

Mi Black like Mud Claat, Kente Claat

Mi Black like Voodoo, Black like Obeah

Black like Yawo an Santeria

Black like Adowa an Ethiopia

Fi mi Blackness a mi weapon

Loaded with Yoruba, Igbo

An Akan Tradition

Mi Black like di Blues, Jazz, Ska

Reggae an Rocksteady

Black like di drum, skanking sweet

An a jump Nyabinghi

Mi Black like Rhumba, like Soca

Black like Rap, like Hip Hop

If yu nuh Black

Yu nuh haffi ketch nuh feelings

Fi mi Blackness come wid spiritual healing

Mi proud a fi mi Blackness

Fi yu pride up to you

Mi seh mi Black, mi Black, mi Black

Mi blood . . . line Black!

- Robert Graham

# # #

ME JUST NEVER MEMBER THE BENZ

It’s with a sad heart that today I resign

After 4 terms as MP and doing fine

But me memory not so good

Can’t remember all I should

Integrity Committee say I am lying

But me just never member the Benz

Cause me did lend it some frendz

It was out of me mind

For such a long time

Lord, me just never member the Benz

Me nuh have no row a townhouse in Miami

And no property in the name of mi dead Granny

Me never ever yet thief a ballot box

Me up to date with all of me tax

Me full life devote to me constituency

Nobody should take me for a crook

Me declare the 2 apartment in Norbrook

The 3 shops me have in Falmouth Pier

And all me land, every square

And me show them all me 29 bank book

But me just never member the Benz

Such a bad time for my career to cease

Cause me really a enjoy the increase

Me could almost buy a bigger Benz

And lend to some other frendz

And don’t pay no mind to IC or police

But why the integrity Commission a pick pon me?

If I was a man I would get a bligh

Commission would just turn a blind eye

But because of what between me leg

That the reason I get sheg

But me just never member the Benz

I am not like no bad ghetto gal

And to do suppen wrong not habitual

It was not due to any bad will

Me just never tek me memory pill

Now IC tek me fe big criminal

I raise my strong right hand

Before God and man

Me just never member the Benz

Don’t give me no Dunce Bag

It just a likkle snag

Me just never member the Benz.

- Conliffe Wilmot-Simpson