Rainy Season -- Day 3

You think you can fool me?
You think you can come and
rough me up one day,
leave me bleeding slow the next
then come round and smile up
and pet up, and sweet up.
“Ay, cooch.” And “Do-do-dahlin”?

I had a grandmother
that had a separate bed
in a separate room
behind a door with an inside lock
because I had a grandfather
with a separate love
for another young brown thing.
(Fifteen years in an oak barrel?
Baby, me and you
we gwein bruk out!)

I have a puppy weh been a puppy
bout eleven years now.
when ih see me kick off my slippers
all up to now ih run.

So weh mek you think
a little bit of half-assed sun
could mek I come out
in short pants
and no shirt?
Cho!  Might be fool di talk,
but nuh fool di listen!

For My Dawg (Very first draft)

Oh, what brown a face!
What a wide, well shaped nose.
You, my friend, were made a thing of beauty!
But you smell, quite strongly, of horse manure.
Is that what you were doing, perhaps, when I first saw you?
Lost in a field of high grass
All four legs in the air.
And then you came charging along the path,
excitement in your eyes as if
you knew you'd done something wrong.
and you blazed by me.
I could run with you
in the heat of mid day sun
and call you brother.
But only if I threw my human being away.

Oh, what brown a face.
What a wide, well shaped nose.
Don't you know you were made a thing of beauty?
But you shine, quite strongly, from the sweat on your brow.
Is that what you were doing, perhaps, when I first saw you?
Lost in a sea of bodies
until strong fingers snatched free a golden lace.
And then you came charging through the street,
hunger in your eyes although
you knew you'd done something wrong.
And you blazed by me.
I've seen your kind of hunger,
Brother.
I could run with you.
But only if I threw my being away.