We Survived Three...Recollection

If you tink Hugo win bad or Louis

Well,

1998 hurricane Georges come pon we

He bring wid he lightning, rain and tunder

Water gush dung e’ry path and gutter

Tree neck bruk,

Limbs akimbow

Tree root a cockup  

Leaves fall dung like tears a sorrow

Man, a blow de win blow

Splitting de board house in three

Pushing it over like a harrow

Are-me-look-a-me-wuk-ya!

See we scrambling under de bed like cockroach

A run from fowl,

Man, we jam weself in a carner

Wey all ah we can hold

Shhh… ah calm, de eye passing

See we peep out from under de bed

Like turtle head out a shell…

Man, weather tun up outside once more

We duck back under for sure

De tail wind licking and whipping

‘Lectric wire screeching

Ghaut belly aching

From de big stone rumbling

When e’ry ting dun

We crawl out luk a crab out a hole

A wah dis we a see,

De latrine garn wid de fig tree

‘Lectric wire tangle up in a de breadfruit tree

Miss John ah call Marie,

“Marieeee! Marieee!”

E’ry body a check pon we

Since we board house bruk in three

Except de rep in the constituency

“Well are you no gat no wey to live”

“This damn Georges didn’t give one wretch’

Well at least we gat life we say, we live to see today!

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Andrea Olivia Ottley was born and raised in the Federation of St.Kitts and Nevis. She is a mother of five children who enjoys motherhood as well as the kaleidoscope of life. She is a poet, a writer and a photographer who believes the world to be art in its natural and creative sense. She writes largely as a mean to comfort herself using native vernacular and vibrant descriptions to create her own voice and style in the world of Caribbean Literature.