| MY TRINIDAD by Adonis |
| My Trinidad is not the Trinidad you read about in tourist magazines, with white sand beaches and hummingbirds floating among steeldrums. Or that brother who could limbo real good for the visitors to spend their money and have something to talk about when they get home. |
| If you come from dere you know, and if you never went, you have to go. |
| My Trinidad is running barefoot on the street before yuh mudda ketch yuh, or before yuh buss yuh toe on dat big stone in the middle ah deyard. |
| My Trinidad is playing rounders and pitchin marblein the dust with yuh eye close to show off for po; Samaroo Village, Off O’Meara Rd, Arima; Larry Gomes Car Park, Arima; Garden Village Recreation Gro |
| My Trinidad is talking gibridge because yuh doh want yuh chirren to know what yuh sayin, and yuh could switch it too yuh know. |
| My Trinidad is climbing San Fernando hill jes so yuh could say yuh do it. |
| My Trinidad is rum and coconut water, eating dry biscuit and cheese and playing cards when somebody dead. |
| My Trinidad is pretendin to study for common entrance exam and cryin cause yuh didn't get into yuh firs choice. |
| My Trinidad is about four or five ah allyuh breaking beach and going down by the wharf behind the scout house to take a dip in the salt, and yuh frighten because Peter drown dey last year. |
| My Trinidad is climbing the neighbor ten foot fence School. Other venues: Victoria District, St Patrick District, Caroni District, Tobago West, Tobago East, Na |
| My Trinidad is getting the sweetest cut ass from yuh fadda fuh nothing jes in case yuh behave bad, and make him shame when he gone to work. . Jes in case he have to hear from Mr. Phillip that yuh didn't say good mornin and good afternoon to every single person from home to school to home again, because yuh have to respec yuh elders. |
| Yeah my Trinidad is something else. In my Trinidad gossip is called commess and anything yuh want to know yuh could aks Marva and Debra, de two sisters with a collective bottom that require a whole footballteam to wine on them for joovay morning. |
| Joovay morning, blow yuh whistle blow yuh whistle Joovay morning, knock yuh bottle knock yuh bottle |
| Wining back and bending down, ketchin the spirit and making mas in the place, and dey could cook! Aks them to make a buss up shot, or a rice and peas with some mauby or sorrel an yuh go want to eat off yuh own hand. They could make a roti with some polouri and kuchela that could make a big man cry like he miss carnaval two years in a row. I telling you, yuh never taste a bake and shark like dey could make it. Even a cup a tea cudda make man bawl. |
| If yuh come from dere yuh know, and if yuh never went yuh have to go. Yeah man, my Trinidad is something else. We doh know nuttin bout ethnicity - a black man is a nigger man, a Indian is a coolie, a Spanish is a cocopayol. Any kind ah mix is ah mix, or a dougla, or a dos, and a white man is a white man or a whitey cockaroach. |
| All de police black and dey always vex, and if yuh watch them hard, they turn color blind and will buss yuh ass regardless. If yuh need counseling go and see the obeah woman or de pundit. They will tell yuh what to to. |
| Cook some sweat rice and yuh man will never cheat again. Suck a penny and he will never f**k again Yuh will know if it woking if yuh see a bullfrog with a lock on he mouth. |
| Yeah, my Trinidad is tiefing yuh cousin bike so yuh could do a wheelie for Angeline up de hill, and limin on de back step, singing American songs, and makin up de words if yuh doh know them. Laughing loud in de road at dat madman who does run amok when he hear de steam horn down in the city council yard, where Choko and Blackie used to wok. Buh dey never do no wok, yuh know. Dey yes wanted to tell people dey had a job. And when dey go party, dey never have no money to buy nuttin, always aksing dey pardner, "Buy a beer fuh me nah boy, yuh musn't be so stingy!" |
| Folkit was a bullerman who used to watch dem little boys in dey short pants. Buh he wasn't no problem after Dionne and Murdoch and Roger and George ketch him and beat him till dey couldna see him. Den dey beat him for hidin. They beat him like Collins used to beat a pan, and dat boy coulda beat a serious pan to make woman wine till dey forget dey have a man, and make man so bazoodie they eh even have time to get vex before wildman Mousie start pelting chop like chop going out of style, because he went and play he smoking weed with Sexy and them other rastas. |
| When Abu Bakr stage de coup a few years back, police lock up de country so tight if yuh fart yuh get a headache, but in my Trinidad is curfew party from six in the evening to six in the morning and if yuh cyah reach home yuh stay until six the next morning. Is nuttin. Drinks flowing like water. 'Oman still wining when de sun come up. If yuh come from dere yuh know, and if yuh never went yuh have to go. |
| My Trinidad is waiting for nationwide blackout to listen to yuh uncle talk bout lagahoo and douen and la diablesse and the white horse and lighting candle quick to have talent show in de dark with the neighbor children. Yuh remember auntie kay ? She had a radio show with some ah de best and worst talent in Trinidad mix up like a pelau to feed my people on the nicest kind of soundbytes this side of the atlantic. My Trinidad is boiling ham in a pitch oil tin out in the yard on Christmas eve night to ketch dew and make it taste like it come from yuh grandmother kitchen. |
| My Trinidad is midnight mass and fresh baked bread and black eye peas without salt for new years and aksing dem boys from town if dey hear the laytis calypso. |
| My Trinidad is going by de beach jes because yuh have nuttin to do in de house. Yuh cook up a saltfish dat sweeter than meat. When is time to eat, brudder, is sand an' all in yuh plate in yuh juice - all over the place. But it tastin so good yuh doh even realize yuh eating more beach dan food. |
| Dey used to say Miss Jack was a soucouyant, but ah go tell allyuh bout dat next time. If yuh come from dere yuh know, and if yuh never went, yuh have to go . . . . I Gone |