Caribbean memoir

Delicate human figures rinse under the sun

leap and wade in the Caribbean sea

        like ardent devotees on a pilgrimage by the Ganges

A ferry at a distance travels to St. Lucia[i]

where the humid summer nights introduced Walcott to the demons

of creativity[ii].  

The hills and the coconut trees

do not evoke memory

or rouse desire

as does the ice-cream emperor[iii]

selling lusty, phallic-shaped cones

to gaudy women

their tits setting the beach and the boys alight,

While children building purgative sand temples at a distance survey the wanton bodies    

As the sun goes down

Desire takes over

Dionysian mingling thud the dance floor

Roman orgies shatter the sedate tune of Calypso[iv].

The ferry meanwhile unloads wheat-sacks at the St. Lucia port

and gets ready to cargo plantains in its belly

the world of intoxications and urges lingers beyond its grasp.

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[i] An island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea

[ii] A Caribbean poet, playwright, writer and visual artist

[iii] “The Emperor of Ice-Cream” is a poem by Wallace Stevens

[iv] Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music