A Spot Up The Ghaut


There was a spot up the Ghaut

Where the tranquil shaded preternatural

And the backdrop

Crafted by some unseen hand

Might have been inspired by a scene from Eden

Up there

Up pass the Sugar Apple groves, Soursops and the big China man rock

Pass the last set of Mango and Coconut trees

Up pass the place where the butterflies gathered

Varied wing-shapes, sizes and vivid tropical colors

Where vines hung from branches over the path

The thick ones we'd swing on

Tarzan like

Passing through shafts of light and dropping

Excitedly into soft white sand

Up pass Long Corner the oranges and the cocoa stand

Right dey way Nayga say

The soldier used to be

That old headless Jumbie

Up pass all that

A stone's throw away from "Ladder"

The bats in the cliff

Where the water was always dripping

Languishing pools of liquid niceness

Decaying brown

Leaves and twigs

And the occasional mountain chicken

Where the trees questing for the sun

Developed tall smooth trunks

That seemed to be miles and miles long


Up there

A partly mossy rock

Broad green umbrella

Three dogs and two books

A wild yellow-bellied snake with eyes like my own

Up there

A home away from home

Where I'd lose all sense of time

Traipsing distant worlds

From a spaceport somewhere in my mind

A reverie

Interrupted once in a while

By an overripe breadfruit the size of a football

Falling swiftly from the clouds

Connecting with damp earth

Mimicking a point-blank gunshot

And I'd jump

Near outta my freakin skin

Startled and unruffled

Sheepish grin

And a return to some fantastic misty destination

As silence once again descends

Upon a secluded slice of Island heaven


I was a wayward child

Often alone but never lonely

Careless and fearless


And one damn lucky

Montserratian Pickney


There was a spot up the Ghaut

Spring Ghaut that is...



JM

© 2010