praying mantis on screen

canoes prowl reef in early morning sun

as it flashes on the rhythmic fall of weed cutter's cutlass blade

everybody's got something to sell besides the obvious dollars and dope

aloe rub, starfish, vegetable patties, braid your hair miss and bush doctor cures

sudden angry eruption between aloe peddler and man with property to protect

muscular security guard with truncheon of twisted wire

"kiss my blood clot" she hisses and they're enemies for life

in the beach front bar they're playing reggae versions of Jim Reeves' Greatest Hits

the waitress sings along, eyes focused dreamily on that sentimental world

and there's DANCING in PARADISE...



blue green ship in turquoise bay

swollen bauxite-red river rushing

stream rising from feathered bamboo hills

tracks once paved now falling away into deep lush valleys

and the farmed-out road contracts pass through so many hands

the print erodes with the weather-worn blacktop

and the jungle's always trying to reclaim the right of way

and the mangoes cacao turmeric goats soursop

mushrooms cane plantains limes

horses crayfish long-legged birds donkeys

curved horns of cattle above dense grass

ganja sensitive plant ackee

and some thorn whose prick brings lockjaw

and tires torn by sharp yellow rocks --

young girl stares pensively from dark door in pale blue wall

Big About and friends at their crossroads bar

with its dirt corral for dancing

drink soursop juice all day long

in quest of the perpetual stiff bamboo

and there's DANCING in PARADISE...



Biggy Dread gunned down by police at Big Bridge March 16

riding a mule cart to Sav-la-Mar pulled out a cutlass and they had to shoot

that's what they say

something tells me they like to shoot

something in the eyes of the ones at the road block

where they searched the car and tried to get us to confess to whatever...

there's truncheons and gas down in Harbour St. --

typical response where life isn't so sweet

and somebody gets desperate enough to say so --

price of fish price of flour

going up up up almost by the hour

and they throw away money on spectacular shows

to show the world the right likes the right music

and the Prime Minister sucks ice cream in the company of a happy band of children

while a naked man, sores on his neck,

lies for days in Washington Blvd. gnawing chicken bones

and the Chamber of Commerce thinks there's too much crime

and there's a kung fu movie in every town

and there's DANCING in PARADISE...



(JAMAICA, EASTER 85