A Drought Ended

Juleus Ghunta

 

He would throw her 

                   across the room. 

Some men make sport of such things.

 

I was warned to see and blind.

 

Still, I watched through the window

how her children, forced into a ritual

dandy shandy, dodged their wailing mother.

 

The day she heaved the pot from the stove,

 

a drought ended in Pell River.

 

Colin             a cumulus of steam              screamed.

 

 

Behind the bamboo fence

         I joined neighbours

who had secretly danced for rain.

 

Serve him right, they said,

injustice don’t sleep long like death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Juleus Ghunta is a Jamaican motivational speaker and creator of the Dreamright concept. He has a BA in Media from the University of the West Indies, Mona. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Bim: Arts for the 21st Century, Bookends (Jamaica Observer), Poetry Pacific, Susumba’s Book Bag, and Poui: Cave Hill Journal of Creative Writing.  Ghunta is indebted to his friend and mentor, the poet Janneth Mornan-Green.