The Caribbean Writer, Volume 22, (2008)

i know Haiti

 I.

i know Haiti by her zebras and gazelles
eden murals and seascapes
voodoo flags and lonesome sunsets

she costs ten thousand dollars at sotheby’s
fifteen thousand dollars at butterfield’s
twenty thousand dollars at christie’s

i know Haiti by her gold coastline
her sequined nets, her pearly teeth
her bountiful markets, her crap game streets
her dancing feet

she is alive in manhattan
thriving in west palm beach
rich in beverly hills
paradise in atlanta

i know Haiti by her scarlet lips
her moonlight eyes, her swaying hips
her glamour smiles, her voodoo cries

Haiti bought me a hamptons retreat
a virginia plantation, a manhattan penthouse
a bentley and a gulfstream jet
i know Haiti and she’s made me rich

II.

i know Haiti, i have little to eat
my tin roof leaks and cardboard house
moves from street to street

i know Haiti by the stench from feces as i walk the beach
as a vengeful remnant of a color coded slave
kept in play by anarchistic trades

i know Haiti as a club foot youth
begging for change by day and a chance by night
by the paintings she sells for a few dollars and a tease
to fat gallery thieves

i know Haiti as a non-tourist retreat
as an aids incubator
as a test site for hepatitis C
as an example to others
independence does not mean free

i know Haiti as i know taino-arawak souls
reduced like sugar to syrup, burned on hot coals
as i know francis macandal, boukman dutty
toussaint l’ouverture, jean-jacques dessalines
henri christophé, still fighting to be free

i know Haiti as i know the blood of mississippi
as i know the cry of brazil
as i know the rape of benin
as i know the slaughter of angola
as i know the theft of aruba
as i know the diamond mines of south africa
as i know the legacy of my diaspora

i know Haiti, le Haïti ne me connaît pas
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Copyright © 2003 by F. Geoffrey Johnson   All rights reserved
First Published in Restoration, a collection of poetry and prose, 2005
First Reprinted in The Caribbean Writer, Volume 22, 2008