Poetry

  Good Morning Mr.

Good Morning Mr. I do anything I put my mind to. Mr. Get up early in the morning to fight the good fight.
Good Morning. I’ve been thinking about you.
Mr. I take good care of my kids, see them off to school in the morning.
Mr. Energized, charged, and ready to go! You’ve been on my mind.
Good Morning Mr. No love lost that wasn’t found. I’ll do anything for you, but I will also stand my ground. Mr. Broad-chest, Mr. Firm-speech, Mr. Good with money. Mr. I stretch to keep me calm, because this world can make you out of control. Not for recreation. Not for fun. To ease the tension. Make my mind, body and soul one.
Good morning Mr. I am always in the gym – fighting off old age, high blood pressure, trying to stay slim.
You just ran across my mind. Good morning Mr. I like to eat right Juicing your fruits and vegetables. All day and all night.
Good Morning Mr. I want to see your Mama smile – so, I will treat you right and buy her flowers. To soften that old hardened heart of hers.
Good morning. Strong man, willing man, open man, dedicated man. King!
Among all other men.
I’ve been thinking about you. Thinking I want to marry you. Thinking I want to have children with you. Thinking I want to wake up to you early and say. “Good Morning.”

Copy Written by Melissa Jean-Louis  2/16/13

 To all the girls I’ve loved before.

Let’s start with the one I love the most. Lorna, if I could write you a poem there wouldn’t be enough ink, or pages or lines in the book to describe my love for you. You are bold and strong and courageous and true. I love you!

To all the girls I’ve loved before.

Little Imani so tender and sweet, so smart; but not neat. You should learn to be graceful and poised with just enough spunk to wow the boys. I love you. To Wynnie The Poop – already you know what to do, growing, sincere. Intellectual – you will be revered. I love you. Tasha and Camille, soulmate and my keep. Offering wisdom and truth. With age you groom like fine wine. Mellow and tasty. I love you. Never shall we know an end, even if time separates us.

To all the girls I’ve loved before.

Crissy, still innocent and pure. Longing to find yourself-search until there; Is no end. We are cut of the same cloth, spry and hard of sorts. You will make us a legacy, something our father has taught. You dream big and have drive. Who am I to tell you how to survive. You have it in you – you know how to strive. Courageous and free. You could never be me. Good for you! Hold the four of them true. I love you; and them.

To all the girls I’ve loved before.

If I were a man, I’d be a fool to leave your side. Dark and rich and beautiful. You have no pride. God has shun his light on you. Precious & True. Beautiful you are, your light shines like a star. Pat, I love you for who you are.

To all the girls I’ve loved before.

You, are so special. Never judging, but not ready to surrender. Giving life and gaining new. Perspectives and wonders, that’s the teacher in you. So fitting, so purposeful. God has given you a gift. I envy you. Cassie you are the girl I’ve loved before.

To all the girls I’ve loved before.

Mamma, you are the first! Emotional and kind, and lusty but girthed. Funny and magnanimous. Youthful but aged. Splendid, wild but caged. Good, and meek and mild. Setting all the foundations for my life. I love you like no other. You are a beautiful treasure. May God bless you with life more abundant. I will see you in heaven with all the girls I’ve loved before.

To all the girls I’ve loved before.

To Karly who showed me things at a young age and made me feel like it was ok to explore. The eclectic in me began to soar, was birthed and flourished with your aid. You are a girl I’ve loved before.

To all the girls I’ve loved before.

The Ming Dynasty must have once bowed at your feet. Always quiet your name says it so sweet – Chiu. To my girl who I knew in my past life, somehow helping to protect me in this one. Adorning me with Jade, so that everything I touch will turn to Gold.

That’s why I love you more.

To my favorite girls I’ve loved before. So numerous to mention, the one in Paris who when is a woman will be mentioned. To the ones that are spicy like Ginger and Clover. To the ones like Pam and Donna who are much older. For Esther who is a shoulder. Giving wisdom and righteousness through God. For those who have not come, they sit and smolder.

To become a girl I’ve loved before.

Copy written by Melissa Jean-Louis November 23, 2013

 One for Mother

With every grain of sand. With every spec of dirt from the
Earth
You nourish the root to grow into the tree
Strong and fore-bearing, warm, and bending with time.
With every drop of rain and splash of sweet water, you rush the shore and wet the ground,
hot and baked,
quenching the thirst of life

With every wind that blow you send the dust of fruit and seed to lay itself on the limbs of trees, on the outstretched tongue of every rose,
petal and leaf.
To bloom into the beauty of smell and sight. With every day, comes the night dark and quiet, for us to sleep and dream of our heart’s delight, of the dawning of
New Day!
Sunlight!
To play and bask, and feel life touching our skin. To breathe the death of night. To wonder your mystery. To love and lose, to try again and refuse,
to accept time!
That floats in on unseen clouds, saunters in and perches itself where we cannot see, nor judge, nor change, nor offer suggestion.

With every passing moment we see dirt, water, wind cover us, envelope us, take us in. To ride on their backs, and wings and droplets.
To discover the shore and
wet the ground,
hot and baked.
To blow and send the dust of fruit and seed
To be earth nourishing the root to grow into the tree
strong and fore-bearing .
To be mother, and nature.

Written by Melissa Jean-Louis 2012

 Power-play

We come from a country like no other.
We see faces of many nations, nestled in the backdrop of our power-play, our struggle.
We want to claim the people who don’t want to claim us, and are proud of our true places.
Lush greenery, rolling mountains, diamond encrusted fire and ice shimmering next to the invitation to bathe.
The children splash, the bigger ones play and all day under the grace of the burning sphere.
Sweltering, but cool in the shade.
Old ones rest under the limbs of a wild grape tree.
Mini-bus mini-bus ju-ju-may-cah. (Sing)
“Wheel an’ come again!” Cries the radio, muffled in the back by the up stretched arms and all the bag an’ pan.
Di big fat ting from Contant Springs jus a tek up all a di space.
Driva, Driva, one stap Driva!
We all disperse and follow the rest of the grazing cattle to “let off!”
The price of everything; life, has gone up.
Yet we, “come back to Jamaica, the land of our home” (sing)
She bellows on the TV commercial. Slogans of No Problem Man! expressly displayed across her gleaming face as she sweeps her coolie hair off her shoulder.
Destruction of the mind and the soul and the DOLLAR.
Who is Bustamante? Who is Paul Bogle? They have since been replaced by George and his other counterparts…Washing – tons of commercial, economical, social distress.
And yes we live in a country like no other. We see faces of many nations nestled in the backdrop of our power play.
We come to America to find refuge only to see it is not such a better day. More power-play. Take taxes, no jobs, left back in school.
“You are too smart, yet we don’t quite understand your educational system there in the third world.”
What a backside! I thought there was only one world!
Constitution says “we are all created equally”
I want me equal reparation for miseducation and colonialization and exploitation of MY nation.
Can’t go home, no papers.
Can’t stay, no papers.
Can’t get credit, no status.
So, we stay in a country like no other, we see faces of many nations, nestled in the backdrop of our power-play.
We love fast, eat fast , cook fast, bathe fast. Air-conditioned luxury and high-priced nothing-ness.
Americanization!
We want to claim people and things that don’t want to claim us. But we stay proud of our many NEW places, spending greenery on the diamond encrusted scenery, we wish to one day afford.
We are a country like no other. We are a state of mind. We are a practicing side show, getting it just a little right in every city, town, country, place we go.
I miss my country like no other.
But it sometimes seems like a power play everywhere I go.

© Written by
Melissa Jean-Louis  2013

No reproduction without consent of the author