GARDENING ON THE RUN


    1

  1. Gardening in the Tropics for us
  2. meant a plot hatched quickly,
  3. hidden deep in forest or jungle,
  4. run to ground behind palisade or
  5. palenque, found in cockpit, in
  6. quilombo or cumbe. In Hispaniola,
  7. where they first brought me
  8. in 1502 in Ovando's fleet,
  9. as soon as we landed I absconded
  10. and took to the forest. Alone,
  11. I fell in with runaways who
  12. didn't look like me though
  13. (I took this as a sign) their
  14. bodies were stained black (with
  15. grey markings) – in mourning
  16. they said, for the loss of their
  17. homeland, else they would have
  18. been painted red. The bakras
  19. called them wild Indians, me they
  20. called runaway, maroon, cimaroon.
  21. No matter what they called, I
  22. never answered. As fast as they
  23. established plantations and brought
  24. millions like me across the sea,
  25. in chains, to these lands, the
  26. dread of mutilation, starvation,
  27. transportation, or whip, counted
  28. less than the fear of life
  29. under duress in the Americas.
  30. The brave ones abandoned plantation
  31. for hinterland, including women
  32. with children and others waiting
  33. to be born right there in the
  34. forest (many mixed with Indian),
  35. born to know nothing but warfare
  36. and gardening on the run. With
  37. the children, no opportunity
  38. to teach lessons was ever lost;
  39. nothing deflected them from
  40. witnessing:

  41. Copena, charged with and convicted
  42. with marronage . . . is sentenced to
  43. having his arms, legs, thighs, and
  44. back broken on a scaffold to be erected
  45. in the Place du Port. He shall then
  46. be placed on a wheel, face toward
  47. the sky, to finish his days, and
  48. his corpse shall be exposed. Claire,
  49. convicted of the crime of marronage
  50. and of complicity with maroon Negroes,
  51. shall be hanged till dead at the gallows
  52. in the Place du Port. Her two young
  53. children, Paul and Pascal, belonging
  54. to M. Coutard, and other children
  55. – Francois and Batilde, Martin and
  56. Baptiste ¬– all accused of marronage,
  57. are condemned to witness the torture
  58. of Copena and Claire.

    59. 2

  59. Some have said that compared
  60. to many, when my time came, I
  61. got off lightly. The first time
  62. they recaptured me they cut off
  63. my ears and branded me with a
  64. fleur de lys on my right shoulder.
  65. I ran away again. The second time,
  66. they branded me on the left side
  67. and hamstrung me. I crawled back
  68. to the forest. The third time,
  69. they put me to death. Released
  70. from all my fears now I feel free
  71. to enter their dreams and to say:
  72. You might kill me but you'll never
  73. bury me. Forever I'll walk all
  74. over the pages of your history.
  75. Interleaved with the stories
  76. of your gallant soldiers –
  77. marching up the mountainside
  78. in their coats of red, running
  79. back (what's left of them) with
  80. their powder wet, their pride
  81. in tatters, their fifes and drums
  82. muted, their comrades brutally
  83. slain by the revolting savages
  84. (who cowardly used guerrilla
  85. tactics, sorcery, stones for shot,
  86. and wooden replicas for rifles)
  87. – you will be forced at least
  88. to record the presence of their
  89. (largely absent) adversaries:
  90. from Jamaica, Nanny of the
  91. Windw ard Maroons, Cudjoe and
  92. Accompong who forced the English
  93. to sign treaties; in Mexico,
  94. Yanga and the town of San Lorenzo
  95. de los Negroes; all the palenques
  96. of Cuba; in Hispaniola, le Maniel;
  97. the Bush Negroes of Suriname;
  98. the many quilombos of Brazil,
  99. including the Black Republic
  100. of Palmares. And so on . . .

    101. 3

  101. Although for hundreds of years
  102. we were trying to stay hidden,
  103. wanting nothing more than to be
  104. left alone, to live in peace,
  105. to garden, I've found
  106. no matter what you were
  107. recording of plantations and
  108. settlements, we could not be
  109. omitted. We are always there
  110. like some dark stain
  111. in your diaries and notebooks, your
  112. letters, your court records,
  113. your law books – as if we had
  114. ambushed your pen. Now I have
  115. time to read (and garden), I
  116. who spend so many years in disquiet,
  117. living in fear of discovery,
  118. am amazed to discover, Colonist,
  119. it was you who feared me. Or
  120. rather, my audacity. Till now,
  121. I never knew the extent to which
  122. I unsettled you, imposer of order,
  123. tamer of lands and savages,
  124. suppressor of feeling, possessor
  125. of bodies. You had no option
  126. but to track me down and
  127. re-enslave me, for you saw me
  128. out there as your own unguarded
  129. self, running free.