1.
I sing the body reclining
A bundle of bones
The lolling breast
Even the undeserving
Stars are the nipples
of angels
The black persistent blooming
I add our butter love
2.
Granny please comb my hair
Oooh I’m going to break/dance
How can I persuade it
to rite a poem/
reclaim the sands
heavy-booted little footsteps
a specimen
whose heart is in the dust
3.
Maybe I lying
Dis ya she country
butter mountains
an de sky blue
Because she has come
the back-home politician-drone
they want a little black blood
of our fondest secrets
This piece is composed solely out of phrases taken randomly from Grace Nichols’s (1989) “Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman: and other poems”. It is yet another classic piece of work from this award-winning Guyanese-British poet. In it, Nichols touches on all sorts—from the mundane to the magical.
I bought this book absolutely years ago and really enjoyed reading it, back then, alongside other collections by Nichols such as “I is a long memoried woman” (1984) and “The Fat Black Woman’s Poems” (1986). I think you will enjoy it too, especially Nichols’s use of Guyanese Creole that highlights Caribbean-British culture and connection.
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