PEARLS TO REMEMBER

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Written By Javanna Cumberbatch
pearls

The voice of someone’s mother called out

Why is there dust in your hair?

Are your mourning?

 

It takes a village to raise a daughter

These names that are uttered from bigger diaphragms

Throats with thicker cords

Where have they come from, what caused this?

 

Does the snake that was cursed to slither on its belly equal to you

Get up child, you can be strong

 

Those weeds you plucked up as a child

Free labor for some of the sons we bred

Remember, you reap what you sew

You shall be given vineyards you did not plant,

Houses you did not build

 

Lean on the women who take pride in stepping outside barefoot

Listening to rake and scrape on unleveled boards

Whose happy feet danced

You are a red tea made of hibiscus and sweetened

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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