My Jamaica: A Poem

my Jamaica beautiful

Her seven-mile white sand bleached beach

graced with water clear as cloudless sky

Her bamboo forests

everlasting in their stretch

for sultry beating sun

Her sunsets paint skies

ripe mango orange

vast, deep loving purple

Bulls Bay sea blue

pink as faint as

woodfire’s earthy scent

Her stars shimmy and shine

on their midnight dancefloor

my Jamaica surreal

Her goats and cows and pigs and chickens and

john crows and chicken hawks and blackbirds and

dolphins and manatees and green lizards and

crocodiles and cockroaches roam the land

dogs, skinny and thin

ribs poke through golden-chestnut coats

noses upturned

sniff, wriggle, and writhe in air

jittery chickens skittering beaks chittering

wings fidgeting on the forage for food

prepared to catch flight after the

clever discovery of a fat crumb

of dirt-stained hard dough bread

chests puffed out, boasting with pride

my Jamaica whimsical

She       tricks and jokes

Her       winds turn tides

did you know skies can lie?

blind sunshine, placid breeze

morphs to thundering clouds

raving fires let smoke unfurl

tendrils of heady grey shadows crawl up walls

fooling the drink and drunk

to see duppies at day

my Jamaica musical

driving droplets of rain beat drums

on black rubber barrel lids

island breeze strums coastal waves

tree frogs croak like piano keys

and dolphins chirp in harmony

all i want is to dance atop the Hill

look down on Friendship

feel dirt squelch and mush

between my toes

as i turn

and turn

and turn

in light of setting summer sun

john crows circle over my head

feel wind’s steady rhythm

sway around my hips

Originally from Jamaica, Brianna Brown is a student at at Barnard College, where they’re majoring in Environment and Sustainability. Read more of their poems here.