Poems by Reuel Lewi

October 2014

Omen

On Good Friday morning
grandfather Joe scurried to his front steps
fetched the sky pure rain water in his glass
set overnight to collect drizzling rain

To inquisitive delight of neighbors
he burst an egg, let its white ooze out
slowly into glass which he placed on the vat
under the morning sun

Twelve noon, time precise
everyone gathered to watch their future
unfold as shapes in motion

Ms. Pansy saw a ship and offered
a chanty:

Swing low, sweet chariot
coming forth to carry me home

Swing low, sweet chariot
coming forth to carry me home   
                 

 

Afterlife

Whoever said When you
dead, you done!

Ever hear such a thing?

These dog-tired bones
feel your cooling breeze
whistling through the leaves

See your shimmering blackness
in Katabuli creek
when we indulge our thirst

You are there
in the yellow glow
of campfire

Glow fire glow
glow fire glow
glow over these Carib shores

We hear your voice roar
in cumfa drums
roar drums roar

Roar drums roar
roar over these
virgin shores

The dead are not dead
Ever hear such a thing?
Only their silver cord be loosed

 

A Poem for the Unborn Child

Death came suddenly
still in the womb
no name
thrust out, buried
under the tamarind tree
in the backyard
another mother
takes you in

 

Reuel Lewi is a Guyanese poet and dramatist and a former teacher in the Department of English at Buxton Community High School, Georgetown, Guyana. He holds a Bsc-Sociology from the University of Guyana and has published in the literary journal Poui, the Guyana Christmas Annual, and the poetry journal Timbucktu. His poems have also been broadcast on the Voice of Guyana Radio. He lives and works in Anguilla.