Caribbean Poetry That I Like

'Hello Ungod'

Ungod my lungs blacken
the cities have fallen
the easy prescriptions
have drilled final holes in my cells
Ungod my head sieves in the wind
Ungod I am sterile
Ungod it appears
I am dying
Ungod I am scared
Ungod can you hear me
Ungod I am testing 1 2 3
Ungod are you evil
Ungod I can't hear you
Ungod I am trying
Ungod I can't reach you
Ungod my lungs blacken
the cities have fallen
head sieves in the wind

Ungod disconnecting.

Lunch Hour

Frederick Street
suffocating,
strangled by people.

Stiletto heels
stab at the pavement.

In the formica atmosphere
waiters scuttle by
serving diners their noon portion
of air-conditioned aloofness.

Waiting
bites hugely
into the time.

At last at the elbow
a waiter
with his 'Instant Coffee' smile.

They've tried to make
that awkward dark cell
below the staircase
into a romantic alcove
but
eating there alone
as she always does
the young girl barricades
herself behind a stare
hard as old toast.

Going back
the balding city square
smells of dust, detachment
and passions discarded
like cheap coats.

Judy Miles
b. TRINIDAD 1944

This Is The Dark Time, My Love

This is the dark time, my love.
All around the land brown beetles crawl about.
The shining sun is hidden in the sky.
Red flowers bend their heads in sorrow.

This is the dark time, my love.
It is the season of oppression, dark metal, and tears.
It is the festival of guns, the carnival of misery.
Everywhere the faces of men are strained and anxious.

Who comes walking in the dark night time?
Whose boot of steel tramps down the slender grass?
It is the man of death, my love, the stranger invader
watching yousleep and aiming at your dream.

by Martin Carter
b. GUYANA 1927