Poems

Set me free

I am walking out because I must flee

Before sadness opens the grave and swallow me

I am leaving not to be with someone else

I am leaving you for me, its time to uproot the tree

Because the hurt is as plentiful as dirt

You broke me into a million pieces

You rip apart the fabric of my soul

I almost lost my mind

Insanity tried hard to imprison me

Your words to me were so cold

You scattered my emotions like ashes in the wind

I broke the mirror to hide from my reflection

His subtraction multiplied my stress leaving me looking like a piece thread

Countless hairs fell from my aching head

I cry myself to sleep in a cold and lonely bed

The leaves from our tree began to fall

One by one they hit the dry earth

Hope was the first one to go

Dreams and aspirations were next in line

Over a decade and no love for me

My bed is as cold as the deep blue sea

No one to hold and console me

Neither in sickness nor in health

Never understood why you bothered to marry me

A decade with you yet my abode is not your own

Day and night our children would beg for you to come home

We share no new years, no Christmas, no birthdays

No valentines and our anniversaries are always late

Never get the chance to share that additional plate

Yearly for that chance I would wait

You spend all your time away from me, from us

For other ladies, happy birthday sweetheart you would post

Yet day and night you treat me like a ghost

Husband, keep it that way and please let’s divorce

Either way you are never around.

Sign the page and set me free

“Now I know that bartering is not fair trade

I gave a heart expecting a diamond, but I got spade”

I treasured you, yet day and night you abused me

I curse the day when I met you

I am taking back my soundness of mind

I am loving me, no more sleepless nights

I am going to live my life for me

I will laugh, skip, play in the rain just to be sane

I am leaving all the pain, hurt and shame.

– Patree Haynes

Hair Scare

Why mi haffi cut mi hair?

No forty leg nuh live in dere

Why mi haffi cut mi hair?

What really causing dis hair scare

Mi locks ah mi religion

More time dan not

Wha kinda chiney bump

Yua call mi Nubian knots?!

Miss World and Universe

Have locks and fro

But wid mi locks

Is like no school mi cyaa go

Wid mi locks, Jamaican schools sey go

Wid mi fro, Jamaican schools sey no

So yu waan mi keep processed hair

But mi natural hair

Mi cannot wear

I jus cyaa see it clear

Di new slave masters

Also black I hear

Slavery, dun long time

Yet mi still cyaa keep

What is mine

It is like mi paying tax

Fi even keep mi owna locks

So why mi haffi cut mi hair?

No forty leg nuh live in dere

Why mi haffi cut mi hair?

What really causing dis hair scare

Yu judge me hair

Though mi carry it nice and neat

I really doan waan see

Slavery repeat

Yu waan mi look as close to white

So yu can sey

Mi looking nice

The new slave masters

As black as me!

Anna use mi hair

Fi no set mi free!

So why mi haffi cut mi hair?

No forty leg nuh live in dere

Why mi haffi cut mi hair?

What really causing dis hair scare

Di answer still no clear

But before history repeat

Beware!!!

– Lisa Gaye Taylor