Eldest daughter of the island hills
Came into this world a flower of Kingston
Pounded by the Caribbean sun
Surrounded by a changed land
With unconquerable spirit
The Wailers in Old Bars
Soccer with no shoes
Chores for every child
Factory men with dreads half your size
A girl running circles on Jamaica farmland
Skipping class
With braids half-knotted
And a little overdressed.
Dresses from your grandmother
that were patched with wear
that looked like a soul.
Your mother, 16 herself,
When she had you.
Too young to know how much
She hurt you with silence
Too blind to see the cracked bottles
And smoke from cut rock
That surrounded her faith
And tore down maternity
Your father, a child of Chinese and Rastafarian parents
A tradesman
A man of conviction
A stern protective voice that was a little too harsh for you
From the mills that dotted your childhood
The boats brought you,
brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles
Now in the dilapidated projects
If Kingston brought a flower into this world
Queens watered the stem that strengthens you
A young black woman in a 3-bedroom apartment for 7 people
Jean skirts and Reeboks
Awkward high school photos (that I still laugh at)
Highlighted bangs and those oversized glasses
Boyfriends who did you wrong
Parties with LL Kool J, Mobb Deep, and Aaliyah
Cousins who DJ and supposedly “chopped it up” with B.I.G.
Fights with friends at the mall
over who said and did what.
But that was the place where you met him
Him being my father
And to you the love of your life
Now a mother yourself
Long curls, the first boy (out of five to come),
a now and forever husband,
And a bed and breakfast that was barely hanging on
But the love that you spoke of filled the empty rooms
The time goes on
Those Brothers and sisters who
In death, were somehow more
But in life were friends
Now you are tired
From this life, you lived and the life yet to come.
Troubled petal, hears this world.
Mighty with violence and despair
Let the love spirit and joy you’ve shown me be the cure.
Let the laughter you found in despair fill every room like sunlight in the spring
And let my children yet to come
When they visit the motherland
They Grasp for you, the flower of Kingston