Amina Blackwood Meeks
MISS LADY never yet fling whey a plastic container from she bawn. An wid good reason. Experience teaches wisdom. She sey fram har eye dung a har toe an never even open Jamaica have a water problem. A nuh likkle October she memba when de place practically wash whey an be de time January mawnin dawn dem issue water restriction. She want to know why den never issue a restriction pan de oceans dat just casually floated away as de Miss Wilma she was passing chu. Restrick wha! Yu tink duppy a idiat? Dem know who fe frighten.
Aldaogh, ascarding to Likkle Miss Jing Bang de mount a water she see cudda never cause by Wilma alone. She mussi did come wid Fred, Barny, Betty, Dino, Bam Bam, Pebbles an de whole a Bedrock. An daon ask if she never meck nuff people bed rock cause no bed can stand firm inna tree foot a wata. All de man what hoist up fi bed pan de whole heap a concrete block dem dat a mussi de new paradigm fe rock-a-bye, baby. Him cudda fine no res inna dat. Yu haffe teck bad tings meck laugh yah, for sometimes when all else gane a das all we have. JB she swear sey at one time what sounded like Tunda a clap to mose adda people was a distinct yell from Fred a beg har fe stop. Yu never hear it? Wilmaaaaaaa!
DEPRESSED
Someting was mecking dat hooman very depressed. Till poor Fred mussi all help har bawl. A cudda wha so? Enid Gordon? Shana Kay Brown? Silk and Satin? Which one a dem? For JB sey ongly a madda who laas har pickney cudda halla so. Eida dat or chu de res a we nuh realise sey nuff tings deh fe we halla bout an a galang like business usual Wilma come fe remind we sey bawling is part of de acknowledgement sey all is not copasetic an acknowledgement is part of de healing. In order fe stop wha fe stop so we can stop gwaan like sey we meck outa stone we haffe stop an decide how fe face de big ole rockstone dem of human disaster and depravity. If we nuh do dat we kean overcome nutten. An see it dere now wedda we like it or not we have to stop an teck stock. Nuff smaddy never imagine sey dem cudda stap from work one day, or dat dem kyar wudda get stop. JB sey she all some fancy upstairs kyar wid some SUV dawg a siddung pan de back seat, park inna water as a grim reminder sey dem name landrover, dat mean sey dem mus know dat dem an boat is nat de same ting. When Madda Nature sey stop ah dat she mean. It is impossible to say no to har when she get mad an she is obviously madder dan she has ever been. Ah so Madder gwaan when pikney naw flex do right.
POTHOLES
An meanwhile Jing Bang a rant and rave Miss Lady calmly a full up har plastic container dem ole paint bucket, cooking oil bokkle, basin, "any an every"... she all apply de time-honoured technology of put piece a zinc into a drum pan so de water will run dung de zinc an full up de drum. She is very determined dat January naw ketch har kean bade. She sey all who never suck salt yet is going to have to try it, if is even a likkle taste. An as you know, after any consuming of salt water must be added. But she sey she dun know sey it is going to be more dan a likkle taste. For nobaddi is going to meck dem deh oversize pothole what Wilma manufacture if dem don't have use fe it. Smaddy have to bear de cost of dat deh production. Dis is nat regular economics where de more you have of one ting de less it cost. No! Dis is irregular Wilma-rian studies. It is nat cheaper by de dozen an de price have no bearing pan its utility. In fack it nuh got no utility an somebody gots to pay taxi fare, push-outa-pot-hole levy, replace shocks and adda parts. Be de time de payment dun de ongliest money what might leff can only buy salt. Dat deh time nuh, who kean fine likkle water fe drink into a serious pukiterry, all shall be sucking salt chu a wooden spoon
Miss Lady all a memba sey when she was a likkle bigga dan a comma dere was big plans fe meck anedda hole fe ketch water. Well she sey it come in to har like smaddy damn dat deh notion, for de ongly hole what dig is de wan dem into de street dem an if anybody drink de water what dat colleck dem is gwine to suddenly turn into a computer, full a virus. Avast kean fix dat.
POOR FARMERS
She sey a de poor farmer dem she sarri fah. Dem siddung patiently wait fe de sun ease so dem cudda put something inna de grung an as dem do dat so, water wash whey everyting. An you could imagine dat afta dat people wudda still waan go a market go beat dung dem price. Or wus yet, leff dem wid fe dem tings fe rotten inna a market an go inna supermarket go pay triple fe plastic food into plastic wrap. Aaah sah, life is very unfair. Any soff-hearted smaddy wudda bawl at such a condition. Any strong-hearted one too, for ascardin to JB no weakling cudda bawl like Wilma, de constitution haffe strong, yu haffe full up a sumpen fe weep so. She sey de whole a we shudda try it, weep an purge and heal an wheel an come again.
