The taste of sour oranges
and rum
the bitterness of drunk
Bermuda afternoons
Another Paradise
you cannot pay
or share
A place where those five dollars
won´t get you nearly drunk
The tempest has been raised
and everyone
must run for cover
And once again
the cars drive on the left
the British have conquered
the Spanish didn´t stay
BLACK BERMUDA
of the fortress
and the slaves
the hordes of murderers
and thieves
brought in
to rule New Worlds
Black Bermuda
a woman in a ferry
descended from
estranged slaves
kings they were
and their music ruled,
in Africa
every morning
the ferry
to Hamilton town
69 and widowed into work
I had to do something
after my husband died
she said
beautiful slave
Bermuda independence
she showed me
a penny with a hog
ingrained
their king
a pig
the Spanish conquerors
frightened by the wail
of swine
they thought they
had reached the gates
of Hell
and not this Paradise
this blue
and peaceful slave
Bermuda
Like any island
of beauty
and of pain
they once had
an American Base
a black woman
with her hair of gray
she showed me a picture
of original settlers
the pigs
that ruled Bermuda once
until the Brits
took place
and nothing changed
from pig to man
a Brit once said
and I wish I could
forget
her name was Edith
and I wrote down
her license plate
as we got off
the ferry
wishing to see her
again
in her Bermuda
the beautiful Bermuda
of liberated slaves
the beautiful Bermuda
of Edith
and her loss of man
of Edith
and her hair of gray
her wisdom
and the message
she gave
how she can feel
so proud
to be Bermudian
African Queen
brought to a land of pigs
Spoke the queen´s English
a much fiercer queen
African Queen
that I´ll never forget
