~~~~~~ The Rowboat Boy ~~~~~~

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It was a romantic start,

at dawn,

when reality was silhouetted

in colorful morning mist.

The rowboat set off.

I was tiny,

protected by the bamboo baskets,

and the oarsman.

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I was fed, sheltered, educated, and....

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Sometimes ...

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And times again....

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I was always alone,

inside and outside....

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And he seemed like a mountain away from me...

Always...

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{ For a very long time, I never knew if he really loved me.}

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~~~~~~ The Sunny Girl ~~~~~~

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What better way to start my day ...

than swimming in a sunny spring of joy.

The grass is sweet,

The sun tickles my sleeves.

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photo credit: Little girl dancing silhouete | designed by Vexels

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The birds are singing,

my lips are dancing....

with this six-year-old darling ....

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But wait ...

It shouldn't get dark so soon...

And where's the green green grass ?

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Can I have this just a lil longer,

please ?

please ?

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Right. It's time to go home..

to go home..

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Daddy ...

Daddy ...

Daddy ...

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Maybe Mommy will be home..

Daddy said Mommy will be home when the spring comes.

Mommy will be home when the spring comes,

that's what Daddy said.

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Time to cook.

Maybe Mommy will be home..

Is it spring yet ?

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Maybe Mommy will be home..

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{ Is it spring yet ?}

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~~~~~~ The Cheerful Boy ~~~~~~

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Remeber,

the naughty fragance of frangipan at night,

the popular beauty of royal poinciana in the summer,

and the wild unction,

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the coconut Palm Tree,

sticky, sweet tamarind,

and the dark purple seagrapes jam.

And, of course, the beaches.

Ah... the Bahamas.

Home.

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She was the only one there ..

from the time the Behamas first entered my memory,

- a hard-working woman.

"You father died before the ocean got to kiss your silky black skin the first time,"

she told me on a balmy summer night.

No how and why.

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I was tiny from the start,

the size of a doll,

almost.

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I love reading.

On my third birthday,

the other love of my life found its way into my tiny lil world

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From the moment that lil white girl walked into our church,

I couldn't take my eyes off her.

No, not the white girl,

but the Barbie in her arms.

What heaven if only that Barbie were mine!

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On our way out of the church,

"Take her," said the lil white girl.

"Mommy said she'd buy me another one."

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"Why do you always look so small ?"

asked mother one day.

"Your father was a big man, the man of men."

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On my knees, I was, a few days later,

begging mother to not throw my Barbie away.

But she did.

On my knees, again I was, crying like an August Hurricane, on a cold winter day,

begging her to not give me away...

to a farmer...

on an island far far away.

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"You shall be a man,"

said the farmer,

who made me work all day every day,

with little food to eat.

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I was given away to an old woman after getting sick.

I missed mother,

who was too busy to come to get me.

I tried hard to remember her face,

when I'm not coughing up blood.

But it's all a blur now.

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All that I could see from the teeny-penny window of the shed I sleep in...

were that little white girl,

and the Barbie doll she gave me

in the church of God.

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