A SONG BY THE BEACH

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Written By Javanna Cumberbatch
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Golden Copper pipes on strings that dance when strung

Sending messages through the air

Then to the ocean

Creating ripples

That turn into pearly waves

The ocean quivers

Its heart is warm now

Its aim is as swift, and precise as a tall bird

Tap dancing on its prey

But lands as soft as a feather deep within my ears, greeting me

The melodious call

Birthed from a soft round belly

Yellow in the middle, then blending into a fiery red

With its’ own pink, and slender rose flute as a beak

Its wings hum the song of a nursery rhyme

Each key note migrates like deer, smooth silk

Easy along a path paved for it in the cochlea

At intervals so high, it loses its breath as it plays one hundred thousand times

 

It’s calling out to me

I sink, I melt, into its cushioned arms

With a tear dripping down my face, and my vocal chords fighting for

Begging that these emotions fade

With eyes closed, I take my rest.

Javanna Cumberbatch

(She/her) Javanna Cumberbatch is a product of a baby blue pillowcase stuffed with cotton. Lovingly. she was sheltered as a child, rather protected so that her morals, the things instilled from TBN and PBS Kids to name a few, remained intact. She was cradled with the soft still voice of her mother, and serenaded by songs sung. From her own lips at times.

The moments that she was let loose, was somewhere safe. The second home of her mother’s mother. An island ‘2 miles long by half mile wide.’ ‘Each square inch filled with pride.’ Whose waters ‘sparkle like a jewel in the sun’ to this day. Line fishing with a friend near the dock. Times cherished and long gone, but never forgotten.

She went to her first Junkanoo at the age of 21, but she was not unfamiliar with the sounds of cowbells, and the families that went for battle on Bay Street. ‘Gimme My Culture.’ The land of my home always giving. Sapodillas and mango trees everywhere you turned. A garden truly. Separated islands and cays, but under one name we pledge our allegiance. A real place. Protected and covered by grace. In its natural state it shall remain. The Bahamas.

Javanna is a student now at The University of The Bahamas. Afforded the opportunity to attend. Amongst other things she is a woman of few words spoken, but a young lady of many words written.

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