Body
I wonder if you would still love her
If she had no body
No female physical attributes for you men to gaze at
No Instagram picture to hit the love button
Coolieween
The names listed here are just a mere fragment of the lists upon lists of diasporic Indo-Caribbean women who have been injured, harmed, and murdered at the hands of heteropatriarchal power – whether that be in the form of their parents, community members, or even intimate partners.
Forgiveness
As Shea sat in the pew listening to Father Lewis preach about forgiveness, her mind wandered back to the trial. Fr. Lewis was getting into the throes of the sermon and showed no signs of letting up any time soon. She allowed her thoughts to drift.
Generation Cry
Taitu Kai Goodwin. Taitu. Daughter of the Soil. Antigua Girls’ High School Alumna. Former Ambassador’s daughter. Miss Anguilla. Someone I knew. Taitu.
Becoming Rage
Tantie Mary say that since me feel me a big woman now, to gwan and don’t comeback. The words still ring in my head three weeks later. My last image of Hibiscus Road featured the woman who raised me.
Her Fate Decided
It was three months after moving into their new home that Toni-Ann was recognising a new pattern with George. He seemed secretive, withdrawn at times and agitated with her most days.
In The Bowels of Her Memory
Maybe this is the time to come clean. This is the salvation, the sign she had been beseeching the universe for the last four years. Or maybe this is a trap. To admit the abuse, would be to admit her weakness.
Take Me or Leave Me
Maybe this is the time to come clean. This is the salvation, the sign she had been beseeching the universe for the last four years. Or maybe this is a trap. To admit the abuse, would be to admit her weakness.
This is Not Love
Control is not love. Obsession is not love. Harassing a person to respond in a certain time frame is not love. That’s entitlement.
Red looks like Ruby – The abuse we don’t see
Being in love is a sensation like no other. The feeling of being validated...I got the guy! He told me that the way our feelings developed for each other were so unique and effortless. He never wants to lose it
West Indian parenting style…
One of the participants was an American woman of Haitian descent who expressed her trouble dealing with depression due to the struggle of sharing mental and emotional concerns with her mother.
The Objectification of Young Girls
One of the most heinous crimes that constantly gets dismissed in the Caribbean and has gone on for generations is the exploitation of young girls by adult men.
Hookin’ Me
Imagine being 13 still just a little sprat
But the men you grow up ‘round
Can’t seem to see that
Your uniform ready for school
Calypso Tingz
Imagine being 13 still just a little sprat
But the men you grow up ‘round
Can’t seem to see that
Your uniform ready for school
Purple Thyme: A Pantoum Poem
She wants to say something to him about how pretty the purple thyme grows this time of year.
She Who Has Found Herself
Sitting straight-backed on a cluster of smooth rocks, not too far from Jonita, was a breadnut-brown woman with a sprawling afro enclosed in a circle of plaits decorated with iridescent shells at the base, and a lush body with a waist that curved into…
Pretty Little Bird
Caged
Pretty little bird,
I adore your coiled feathers
But This is Not My Child
I could never tell a single soul how I really feel about the girl-child. She is not of me. She is my husband’s child.
The Objections of Cats
My words pat her on the hand and
Shoo her protests like stray cats
But
She objects just once more
Trapped
My bones and spirit broken
Battered, bruised and slapped.
Words are unspoken
Inside my body trapped.