kagablog

they were at it again.talking about how i was useless in the fields.saying how i sat day dreaming all the while and looking to the sky ..”fi what mi no know..said my uncle, in that drawn out patois so deep and rough, pulling on his long beard and scatching his head of hair that looked like a birds nest.
“him sit and stare and count all de rain bird going south and when him done, him count de birds coming back. him sit down by de riva and stare pan de fish dem and watch de cow dem eat and copulate.
him climb tree an fall out him, him stan inna ants nest and de ant dem bit him. him jump pan donkey an donkey kick him. him uselss i tell you.”
on he would go complaining, scratching an pulling on his beard and spitting. my granma would roll her eyes at him and look him up and down,cursing underbreath, when he said the word u.s.e.l.e.s.s.
he would ignore her stares and continue saying ,”him have two left hands.. an nuttin can make dem right”.
“an you wat bout you, she would shout back at him..”you jack of all trades an masta a none.
“him useless, an your pickni dem useful, fi carry water and feed chicken and fetch kerosene oil from road and fork de field.. an dem can’t read.”

to this he would not have a reply.. he would mumble some obscure thing about when he was a bwoy, and try to blame her for his own short comings. but she would laugh and say.. “you were neva interested inna books an school.. lawd know sey mi try..

truth is he spent all his days playing the saxaphone at all the local dances from spanish town to montego bay and back again.neva really set foot in school.

him useless cause him sit down inna bush an look pan gods creation and draw inna him book.
him useless to you cause you can’t work him like a mule, an you know sey him a go back to him mada soon. but when you want someting, written or someting fi read.. him no useless.

member de time when him write you a note an you laugh, an made fun of the way him write..Member de hurt inna him eyes, member.?
he had embarassed me in front of my brother and his friends. they all laughed and i had to write the letter over.Not knowing then that he could not even read.
“you might not send your pickni dem a school, but him de here, fi go a school an study, an go a foreign, far away from here an you..
you can’t read an write and you pickni dem can’t read an write..an you come stan up inna my face, an inna my yard, an come tell me sey mi granson,your sista’s child is, useless,
cause him can read and him no like fi work inna de field. him like airplanes, sunny skies, an him full a dreams. who is de useless one here beardy.. who is de usless one here.