sample text

THE WINDRUSH

They say she was pregnant

Came to see full of me

Weighing her down in shoes dem

Baggy and all

They say the ship nearly sink

Me mudda never sleep a wink

They say Inglan full of promise

All my mudda do was reminisce

A stowaway she was

Hidden between the trunks

But she came

Coz my poppa came

She was full of me

And I was gonna make her rich

Her tummy bulging

Sea sick

Morning sick

Home sick

She had heard, London streets

Were paved with gold

But what kinda nancy story was dis?

Obia playing his tricks

Me mudda and poppa feeling his licks

London streets are paved with sleet

Me mudda cried every night

And me granny wrote back

I thought you sailed on the Goldrush

No Granny, the Windrush

And the streets are paved with sleet

Sleet what dat?

Some kinda fancy name for your man

Granny wrote back

I arrived on the dot

What happened to black fella time?

Me mudda ask the nurse

Me poppa sneered

Inglan is a bitch

This was Inglan’s crime

No rice ‘n’ peas

No stew pot or dumpling

No ackee ‘n’ salt fish

No cassava leaf

But me mudda and poppa survived

Malnutrition

Humiliation

Interrogation

Assimilation

Welcome to the land of honey and milk

The posters said back home

Sweet honey and money

Obia playing his tricks

Giving me mudda and poppa his licks

But their baby gonna be all right

Me mudda prayed

While me granny cursed

The only gold she see when she visit Inglan

Was gold pon me poppa’s teeth

And tea what dat?

Where the bush tea? Gunja tea?

But me mudda still sing to me every night

Cooing in my ear

All her babies gonna be all right

Despite the night

She set sail

Pon  de Windrush.

A collection of poetry, prose and plays

By Valerie Mason-John

Published by Get A Grip 1999