Seawall, Kitty

Could I write a poem evoking memories, images, sensations, from a different time, a far different place - even from 26 years ago? The question tantalized me in the sleepless wee hours. It seemed like accessing a mysterious power - perhaps memory is that. 

Childhood memories are often fuzzy, especially when connected with surroundings that are no longer present. It was my desire to make them live again that prompted this free verse composition recalling my family's first 3 months in Georgetown, Guyana, in the suburb of Kitty by the sea.

Seawall, Kitty

Bright, steamy heat bears down 

on coastal Georgetown,

drawing ever upward the green myriad

of palms, bananas, poinciana, grasses, and unending vines, 

through every gap unguarded 

by the concrete works of man.

The brown sea glistens with attempts at blue beneath the noon day glare - 

flat, innocent-appearing, 

but guarded with more diligence.

Above the coastal road that curves 

the busy edge of town, 

the seawall stands - long, angular, prosaic, backed by a beach of tar-encrusted boulders, 

and fronted by evolving paint displays,

announcing enterprises somehow linked with holding back the sea - 

'Drink Low-Fat Klim!',

'Trust Western Union', 

blare from rectangles of yellow,

between more numerous stretches of chipped and fading red, or white, or green that once promoted things familiar and gone. 

My invitation is the concrete steps

to the wall's top, 

where, many evenings, our house-weary feet found freedom, 

wired hyper child legs leaping, 

from wall to boulder, and to boulder and to boulder, 

welcoming the steady rush of sea breeze from the darkening waves.

Dark people blossom like night flowers, from the streets and corners, 

welcoming the cool of dusk, 

while sudden tropic night fall 

turns us back to rooms, walls, roofs, mosquito nets, and breeze-receiving windows,

where songs of tree frogs 

sweetly pierce the fading roar 

of city traffic in the night.

-AFB, 3-12-2024