Mongrel [Poem}

MONGREL
By Gene Wilkes

I find it hard to understand
All this bickering about race,
With so much miscegenation
Going on all over the place.
Brother Marvin sang "Jahagi Bhai"
And it get plenty people goat,
But, doh care what nobody say,
Plenty ah we in the same boat.
Two of my ancestors also
Arrived here riding on a wave,
One, quite likely, a slave owner,
The other, most likely, a slave.
Through the years, for some good reason,
Two blood lines mingled, willingly,
With the native Amerindian...
And there began my family.
Here, in this Rainbow Republic,
We have an ethnic callaloo,
Hybrids that transcend barriers
To enrich our cultural brew.
Mestizo, beige, khaki people,
And it have so many ah we,
Making solid contribution
To the uplift of this country.
Half white, half breed, half Chinee,
High brown, beke negre, shabeen,
Red people and cocoa payol,
Dougla, and others in between.
Whenever it have election,
The race talk just keep getting worse,
So I giving this solution
In my Trini dialect verse.
Calling Mongrels of Trinbago,
Some people like they want to fight,
Is time to form a buffer zone,
So we mix-breed have to unite.
We, mix-up, callaloo people
Who have no particular race,
But have so much ah ancestors
From all kinda different place.
We, who is neither fish nor fowl,
But just a little bit of each,
May never know where we come from,
But we know for sure that we reach.
We eh have no mother country:
Spain, China, Syria, Lebanon,
France, England, India, Africa...
We TOTALLY TRINBAGONIAN.
Mongrel is not a dirty word,
Look around you, can't you see
That in another couple years
We go be in the majority?
So we have to stop the ruction,
Is we responsibility
To wipe out racial prejudice
In we beloved Tee and Tee.
Even strong roots cannot nourish
Those branches cut off from the tree;
Why should the weaver unravel
This multi ethnic tapestry?
So come on my Mongrel Trinis,
Is time to rally to the cause
And stop reckless politicians
From instigating senseless wars.

© Copyright – Gene Wilkes, Cocoyea.
Posted with the kind permission of the poet.

VIEW ALL WORKS SUBMITTED BY THIS AUTHOR.