Selections from Yasmin Morais
"From Cane Field to the Sea"
Belle's Property
She cleaned offices by night,
always holding on tight
to the dream of owning a piece of the rock.
Every pound and shilling mattered.
Soon, she withdrew from the Bank of Mattress,
enough to pay down on a small property in Kingston.
She stared at the receipt with incredulity.
Semi-literate single mother
on her way to owning land?
One more baby and many hardships later,
Belle lost her property and her dreams.
My grandma went to her grave feeling
smart-talking lawyers deliberately cheated her.
(c) 2011 Yasmin Morais
Bottom Line
Bottom line?
Red blood coursing through our veins,
never mind hues of white, brown, chocolate, black.
Despite attempts at differentiation, our hearts feel pain,
get broken, and burn with anger and frustration.
Salty tears fall from blue, green and brown eyes,
weary from grief and injustice.
And when death makes its claim, we descend
to cold mother earth, where race, class, ethnicity
and social importance lose all their significance.
(c) 2011 Yasmin Morais AUTHOR BIO: Yasmin Morais was born in Jamaica. She lived in Toronto for nine years and now resides in the U.S. She is a librarian in a law library and blogs at Poets of the Caribbean. Image:
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