Georgetown, Guyana
Six o' clock a morning rum shop door open
In less than a minute, it welcomes Mike and Jason
They call fuh a quarter Vodka with orange juice chaser
And a set of other rum folks soon follow after
Noise in the rum shop as everybody start fuh call
Confusion at the counter mek somebody rum fall
Pishing! on the floor you could tell a bottle fell
Mohan who buy de rum start fuh cuss like hell
In despite of that he still buys a quarter again
Cooling down he temper but still playing insane
Old man Jenkins acting like he already drunk
Cause he deh cussin uncle Jai but he mother sk**t
The bar man pull he up and seh get some control
Don't think I can't put you outside because you ole
By 8am every table full with rum and old men
Talking nuff rum stories from way back when
Some stories were lies, while some were true
Others so devious that even the devil won't chew
Nonetheless every man use to feel on top
Every time he is sipping lil rum at a Caribbean rum shop.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
If you should ask a genuine Caribbean man, he would insist that the best place to have a man's conversation and maybe some political small talk is in a Caribbean rum shop.
Again, if you ask him where you can find genuine entertainment and sarcasm at his best; you would have to go to a Caribbean Rum Shop.
While the scene describe in this poem does not applies to all rum shops in the Caribbean, it is almost reminiscent of the true rural rum shop scenario in my homeland, Guyana.
Realistically, I can also vouch for a similar rum shop scenery in rural Trinidad, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, Cuba, and Belize to name a few.
But while I might not be speaking for everyone, the core elements of this poem are all based upon my personal experiences and the general picture that fits a typical Caribbean Rum Shop. Hence, my inspiration for this poem came from those very experiences.
I know, and you know, and we all know that rum forms an integral part of our Caribbean culture since the days of Christopher Columbus and the ravaging ages of Pirates.
And from that time to now, rum continuously creates some characters while it has no social impact on others who consumes it.
But for those rum-created characters; their behavior and conduct in a typical Caribbean rum shop can appear to be nothing more than animalistic, comical and idiotic, even in times when their behaviours are considered to be of the best.
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES