IF I WOZ A TAP-NATCH POET

“dub poetry has been described as…‘over-compensation for deprivation’”
Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century Poetry

“mostofthestraighteningisinthetongue”
—Bongo Jerry

"…if I woz a tap-natch poet
like Kamau Brathwaite
Martin Carter
Jayne Cortez ar Amiri Baraka

I woodah write a poem 
soh rude
an rootsy
an subversive
dat it mek di goon poet
tun white wid envy

like a candhumble/ voodoo/ kumina chant
a ole time calypso ar a slave song
dat get ban
but fram granny
                           rite
                           dung
                           to
                           gran
                           pickney
each an evry wan
can recite dat-deh wan

still
inna di meantime
wid mi riddim
wid mi rime
wid mi ruff base line
wid mi own sense a time…"