After Gary Butte

“So crossing the river

and walking the path

we came at last to Kumasi.” – Kamau Brathwaite

Prologue: The merchant

Did he arrive at sunset’s orange hour

or with the anonymous midday bustle

markets busy before Sabbath—

and evening or noon height, him,

stranger with strange wares

looking for a berth

in the fabled city.

 

Who wants cantos from placards of bewildered widows?

Totems to soft bones of decimated embryos?

Androgynous  puppets parading obscenely between certain jars?

—Any credit for dark sayings of Babylon, Bhutan or islands of the sea?

 

Fifth Avenue needs no merchandise of prophets—

                    with their Greek vases

                    their silicon tablets

                    their first editions

                    high speed subways and twin towers—

won’t spare a dime for this third world primitive

his ark of Mesopotamian innocence

his naive style.

i. The way up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Ur to Haran down the Crescent Valley to Egypt

back again to the terebinth trees of Mamre,

and the Canaanite was then in the land.

The Man came in the heat of the day

on their way to the boulevards and museums

the malls and stadia, suburbs and ghettos

to strange women and rich men’s catamites.

 

After, the plain of Siddim smoked like a cursed holocaust

and salt pillars lined the road to Zoar.

ii.  The new age

“ city of gold,

paved with silver,

ivory altars, tables of horn,” – Kamau Brathwaite

 

 

 

 

 

 

remembrances of ghosts:

                  masks of indifferent hostility

                  nightmares we had not imagined

                  shame applauded across networks

                  distractions at the frenetic tips of fingers—

privacy, thought, prayer

‘itation, Jah –

banished.

iii. A kiss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“It was the bolero, Ramona, the bolero,

a kiss of jazz creole

lady with the Rita Dove lips,

not forgetting, Maritza

Andean pan flutes breathing reggae

at El Solar casa cultural in Bucaramanga —

Celia Cruz, Lady Day, Sesenne Descartes

Makeba, Piaf, Edith Lefel

souls many, so many, Ramona

lovers scarved with rainbows

scattering galaxies out of sad earth

raising for us pardons, benedictions, homecomings.”

iv. Doors to infinity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turnstiles, tokens, trains

eternity of rails receding

 

Flirtatious oval eyes

retreating to masques of faces

 

The familiar loved

becoming stranger

 

You between the glass doors

echoing reflections

 

Your heart, furtive

fervent, fugitive.

v. Animal man to angel

“the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose” – Genesis 6:2 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the chronicles of giants

Fire loved a woman of earth

with peacocks at her feet

hibiscus through her locks

and deep dimples under her laughing—

 

when she betrayed him

(his fantasies bored her eventually)

for a one-boat fisherman and his spectacular nets

flung over green islands

and flying fish —

 

 

their son, confused between his elements,

took to the airwaves

and broadcast himself Hurucan

furious against surf, hill

defiant lamp.

 

Epilogue: Morning roosters

“and the feather, red

rooster, reminds us he

watches; ” – Kamau Brathwaite

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A rumour, and more than a rumour, of cockerels —

from Kumasi to tents of Kedar

from markets of Sichuan

to Port of Spain’s Savannah —

 

The great Comb that raised the world to the first sun

comes again with His plumes and spurs

comes to take for Himself a harem of a bride

from every coop and hen house of earth

 

Egyptian Fayoumis, Japanese Bantams,

Rhode Island Reds and Blue Cochins

Guinea Hens and Creole Leghorns,

among the bridal caravan of pullets —

 

He comes of course, with the morning

and the trumpet radiance of the last sun.

 

~ John Robert Lee

 

John Robert Lee is a St. Lucian writer who has published several collections of poetry. His short stories and poems appear in numerous international magazines, and his work is featured in World Poetry Portfolio #58, edited by Sudeep Sen for Molossus (2013).

His publications include: ‘Sighting and other poems of faith’ (2013), ‘elemental: new and selected poems’ (Peepal Tree Press, 2008), ‘Canticles’ (2007), a collection of poems illustrated with his photographs: ‘Artefacts’ (2000), ‘Saint Lucian’ (1988) and ‘Vocation’ (1975).

In 2006, he co-edited with Saint Lucian poet and playwright Kendel Hippolyte ‘Saint Lucian Literature and Theatre: an anthology of reviews’, which is recognized as a significant contribution to the documentation of the history of Saint Lucian writing and drama.

 

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Featured illustrations, titles and paintings by © Gary Butte

Lines from Kamau Brathwaite and The Bible used with permission.