Poems

This Life

Where do I begin?

As I sum up life's experiences

And expectancies

The day-to-day struggles

The laughter

The triumphs

The pain

But I am not alone in this game

The challenges

They never leave us the same

You either lose or gain

It's pointless to complain

We have the freedom to choose

How to react

Opportunities, we sometimes lack

As human beings

We bounce back

Creating waves

Carving out our own success tracks

Every decision takes us down a different road

But our disappointments and misgivings

Seldom meet at the same crossroads

But never do we settle for failure

Our tiniest choice

We will not waver

We are powerful in our thinking and doing

Inspired through our giving

And so our choices reverberate

Our strength

Throughout the entire universe

This race

Simply cannot comprehend

How we become masters of our destiny

Unfettered

Despite the chains and lack of empathy

The epitome

We breathe, we live

This Life

- Charmaine Wallace

KINGSTON

Kingston capital Kingston capital Jamaica

From Torrington Bridge to the harbour

Run cross de sea to Port Royal, Kingston 1

Weh 1692 earthquake draw dung inna san

Inna de sea, buildings fall like chop dung trees

Survivors hurry to de main lan weh Kingston lie dung pon

Subjugated Africans work hard as slaves

Throughout the 17 hundreds fi meck slavers enclave

Kingston was de main slave destination port, never resort

The town was constructed so pretty

Only white enslavers were legal to walk free in de city

In de 18 hundreds wen sugar and banana get dem rich

World pressures stop all de slavery ships

Only illegal ships continue to enter de port

But few white were there to spy and report

In 1834 slavery was abolished

Kingston port got another hit

1838 wi get full freedom, stuck same way, weh mi fi tun?

Kingston now deh pon every body lips

People walk long fi get a little prip

Some reach inna de town noh waa gu back home

Kingston City now a everybody zone

1865 some people still naa get pay

Paul Bogle rebel outa Morant Bay

1907 Kingston was flat,

earth quake again, another

problem

Cleanup time Africans at work

An de work neva stop build it back pon spot

Islandwide strike 1930, Kingston port again in history

Scholastic Mulattoes formed trade unions

Neo-colonialists now in de region

JLPNP gamble Afro-Jamaicans, every five years in dem neo plan

Election 1980 Kingston red, ova 800 Africans lay not in dem bed

Only 2000 come, anada

millennium

Kingston mi deh chant mi Kete Drum

2015 Kingston still King fe de Queen

Rastafari deh yah, and Kingston reveal ...

- Ras JaJa 2015