My Chinese blood - written for Owadaunii on Independence

Heritage and Identify is a funny thing
What makes us Guyanese is we are one and we are many-

First coming in 1853
What we call the chinee
A drop of blood in my ancestry
Coming to Guyana -
Signing 5 year contracts
First came vagabonds and adventurers
Then came those fleeing conflict in China
Coming to Guyana -
A chance for a different life
but finding hardship and strife
Doing their bit and setting up shop
After tending to sugar cane crop

Some left-
Seeking a homeland in the Caribbean
Those who stayed became Guyanese
Setting up their life as part of our tapestry
A drop of blood in my ancestry
Setting up churches, going into politics
Let me show you Arthur Chung
Our first president at Independence
Jonathan Foo - a cricketer too!
Robert Victor Evan Wong
His accomplish​ments as long
politician, civil engineer, businessman, rancher

In the absence of your company

In the absence of your company
My world fell silent-
When the rains came
And thundered on zinc rooftops
I cocooned and thought of you

In the absence of your company
My heart beat in singularity -
When the rains came
Pelting through windows and cracks
I let myself go with the wind

In the absence of your company
In my singularity
I learnt of comfort of silence
When the rains came
After the long season of dryness
I learnt to just listen to it pour

May

In the month of May
The rains came-
Bringing heavenly water upon the Earth
Drenching the packed and dried soil

Green shoots push through damp soil
Life returns to the Rupununi
Bringing promises of new life and change
Blossoming with excitement

Raindrop Memories

Gentle drops on rooftops
Misguide the sense of peace
Behind that cloud lies a power
Of life and death -of fluid water

Reminds me that a calm has a storm
Childhood memories of floods in July
Of red ants nests bundled tight - floating
Attractive to curious mind, but so dangerous

Reminds me-
Of a father whose soul was in the wild
And his heart in his children
Adventures in the Savannah - black mud and flooded plains
Reminds me -
Of a mother whose eyes saw clear
Saw the truth through the rain

Those thunderous drops on rooftops
Reminds me of bedtime stories
Of Vaquero Bom -Heario, Smellio, Seeio and maga horse too
Adventures beyond the night
Of Rupununi men and their might

Drumming on the roof reminds me-
Of rain beating in - feeling safe in their arms
While thunder roared​ and lightening struck
It became a thing to love - not to fear
Reminds me-

Rupununi Season and Reason

Savannah breeze blows
Warm and cool - Dual
Like Rupununi Seasons
The heart has no reasons

Mountain breeze blows
Wind whispers secrets
News - untold- on the winds
Souls of one kind intertwined

River breeze blows
Whispers to Kaiambe trees
Thatch roofs rustle softly
The hammock gently swings

The Northeast breeze blows
Moments melt in darkness to memories
Your face etched upon my mind
A drawing on my soul

Its not a heart's place to reason
Like a Rupununi season

Mosaic beauty

For I see the beauty in you
Even though you cannot
For I see the kindness within
Even though you deny your heart

And I see the broken part too
Even though for you that's true
I see fire beneath the broken lines
Even though you deny the spark within

I will tend that spark in you
Even though you cannot
I will forge you into a mosiac
You must see broken can be beautiful too

Empty

Broken, shattered thing -
How pretty you are when you stand
Defiant, willful - a fiery contradiction
Knocked up - bruised - damaged
And -
Still you stand -
Quietly with an open heart
Giving out your gentle hand

Why is it that you stay?
When he leaves you wanting more?
He'll turn your heart to stone
Leave you with bitterness in your soul
And -
That open heart will close
That gentle hand harden
That pretty face - echoing empty