More Meat than Rice!

Maria Conchita Paloma Juana Garcia-Benjamin-Lutchman-Benjamin-Gill-Valentine was the most beautiful woman I did ever see in mih whole, entire seven years of life. She was prettier than my own mother. And yuh know at that age it ain’t have nobody bigger, better, brighter, stronger, smarter or prettier than yuh own mother. Well she, Maria, was prettier than my own mother. My mother didn’t wear fancy clothes like her or comb up her hair and wear lipstick and eyelash and all of those things. My mother sure would never be caught with her breasts pushed up high under her chin and be wearing stockings with seams down the back and toeless, high-heeled shoes with gold buckles at the ankles either. My mother wouldn’t be caught dead outside the house with her hair flying all around her head in so many curls and coils look like she alone had hair for about five people. My mother surely didn’t have bright red, long nails to match her lips. My mother…well you get the picture. She was the most beaut...

Well the real shit is how I end up in the middle of a cafe in Belmont in a towel tuck into a panty. "I lose mih bag I lose mih hat i lose mih clothes I lose mih keys i lose mih wallet." "yuh lose yuh bag yuh lose yuh hat yuh lose yuh clothes yuh lose yuh keys yuh lose yuh wallet? Jesso jesso? yuh wallet? jesso?" "he lose he bag he lose he hat he lose he clothes he lose he keys he lose he wallet? Jesso jesso? He wallet? jesso?" Allyuh yuh know is shit we like so by the time the third somebody repeat it you know is because they make a whole rhythm section and man wining like this ain't one of the saddest and most peculiar things they ever did see: a grown man stand-up normal normal in the middle of a stranger kitchen in a towel and a panty. Well yuh remember how the Corona come and mash up Carnival 2021, so the government decide to treat the big football match and dem like it was a small carnival nah. So say come and all the teams come in the ...

He was a brute. He was exactly the kind that I liked too: big and black and brooding, 6 foot 2 or 3 inches, probably 200 pounds. He spent his days working construction on the big building that was going up at the end of the block street. At least that’s where I saw him on my way to and from school every day.    When I first saw him I couldn’t even look at him without hanging my head and looking down at the ground. I felt hot all over and would blush hard, hard, hard. I tell you I could have signed up to understudy Rudolph if only my skin was light enough for all that red to shine through. With each glance my chest would tighten and my breath would quicken. At the same time lower parts of me would feel like the sun was calling for it to show itself and my legs felt as If they could not possibly open wide enough. A couple weeks in I saw him notice me. I would glance and glance and if I saw him see me I would look away quickly. He didn’t seem to care to tell you the truth....

Trixie break bottle to challenge Fancy the night the boy come and start to work Back Bar. It was like stick fight and the two drew power from the crowd. The lines were drawn and the crowd behind each stepped quickly, swirling and shuffling, a liquid unit behind them as they as a postured, throwing long shadows into the corners. Some of the people were out for laughs others out for blood. Most of them were looking for a kinda passive vengeance at some slight or hurt feel from either Trixie or Fancy that they hadn’t the courage to carve out for themselves. It was an ancient dance, slow and rhythmic, with sudden syncopation like lightening when they sliced the air with their chosen bois. Fancy’s was the long barbershop razor she kept hidden in her breasts that she released with a soft flick as Trixie had break her bottle. Is like she know what was coming. The signs was showing that night.   The noise of the crowd pierced through everything: crying screaming women, men laughing,...

Well Hear nah. Is because being a Trini is really something special that you can’t explain to anyone else in the world nah. We are undefeated at every turn yuh know. Is shit, after shit and what we doing? Well if we ain’t laughing we wining, if we ain’t wining we on the beach drinking rum. How you mean how I mean? You ain’t hear? Girl, I busy out on the Charlotte this morning I say let me get in town and buy some extra panty for the chirren. Well yuh know since they home from school is only ramp and skin whole day and I decide they ain’t go hurt up my head with a setta laundry every other day so. How you mean? Nah I cyah see dem clothes pile up; is every other day I does be running that washing machine. You real boldface, is what I buy it for? Anyway so girl I now put the little panty and dem in mih bag and I run across the road. No girl mih Massy bag. You know I doh leave home without it. Ha! You right Massy ain't know what they do when they start  with dem bag; and...