GEOGRAPHY FOR ROBERT by Jane King Hippolyte
“We return
because we must
to sparkling harbour, Castries dust
the market bright with makambou, pumpkin, lime
seasoning peppers, various mangoes, thyme
the reek of garbage
piled up coconut shells
little dark shops
saltfish and other smells.
Quiet La Toc, which as children we’d comb
discovering tunnels, old guard houses, secret homes
watching the lightning crash on the black sea
as thunderstorms raced on to Martinique.
We will return to where we were before
The moulding hands that finalized our shapes
Before they fixed us in this potter’s field
Patterned by our landscapes.
We will return because adult despair
may lighten with a glimpse of what we saw
before we even knew how solitary we were.
In this dark time
as drought devours our land
La Toc, Vigie, the market
help us understand
/in blinding snapshots flashes/
when/
the harbour’s suddenly cleaner/
buses wood and brighter/
the cruise ship’s a Bequia schooner/
heavy bare breasted women squat/
squelching piles of clothes to bleach/
on river rocks
below the bridges
by the bends
in Canaries and Anse La Raye
and we are innocent as clay…”
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