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Sugar Cane
Sugar Cane - Grace Nichols
Sugar Cane
1
There is something
about sugarcane
He isn’t what
he seem
indifferent hard
and sheathed in blades
his waving arms
is a sign for help
his skin thick
only to protect
the juice inside
himself
2
His colour
is the aura
of jaundice
when he ripe
he shiver
like ague
when it rain
he suffer
from bellywork
burning fever
and delirium
just before
the hurricane
strike
smashing him to pieces.
3
Growing up
is an art
he don’t have
any control of
it is us
who groom and
weed him
who stick him
in the earth
in the first place
and when he
growing tall
with the help
of the sun
and rain
we feel the
need to strangle
the life
out of him
But either way he can’t survive.
from I Is A Long Memoried Woman (Karnak House, 1983), © Grace Nichols 1983, used by permission of the author