HURRICANE STORY, 1951

1. Margaret and her man Delbert
2. such a fine young couple
3. everybody said
4. so full of ambition
5. so striving
6. their little boy so bright
7. so handsome
8. so thriving


9. Though in 1951 after the hurricane
10. struck they ended up suck-
11. ing salt same as everybody else


12. Margaret said: Look
13. we'll never get anything back together
14. unless we do something serious
15. something really ambitious
16. Plenty people going to England now
17. plenty women going in for nursing
18. Let me go
19. while you continue here
20. with the farming
21. Just for the
22. time being
23. As soon as I
24. graduate I'll come back
25. get big job
26. That time see me in
27. mi whites nuh
28. Soon turn matron


29. Together
30. we can build a good life
31. for our son


32. But somehow she never
33. got far with nursing
34. for in her life she never
35. knew people who could hard so
36. never thought a country could cold so
37. With her heart turning into stone
38. with nothing to show for it
39. – she wanted so much
40. for the boy – she decided
41. though she would continue striving
42. she wouldn't write again
43. until she could send him
44. what amounted to
45. something


46. The man begging his mother
47. to keep the boy said: So-so
48. farming can't take us too far
49. This can never provide my son
50. with the life I want for him


51. He set off for America
52. to be a farm worker
53. Every year he went
54. to pick oranges


55. Those on his tree
56. in his yard
57. turned black from blight
58. for he never came back
59. to that piece of ground


60. He settled in the city
61. Got married
62. Sometimes (when prodded)
63. he sent something
64. for the boy
65. He had
66. other things
67. on his mind now
68. He was ambitious
69. and striving again
70. Going far


71. Granny said
72. to the boy:


73. Hard-ears children
74. can't reach nowhere
75. you will
76. never amount
77. to anything


78. His ears
79. weren't hard
80. he was just
81. hard of hearing
82. After a while
83. he also stopped speaking


84. His granny wrote
85. to his father (whom
86. he couldn't remember)
87. to come and get him
88. saying:


89. I old
90. I can't strive with him
91. any more


92. His father saying
93. he would try with him
94. came and took him home and
95. introduced him:


96. This is your sister Rose
97. This is your brother Reuben
98. This is your sister Carol Ann
99. This is your brother Jonathan
100. and this is your new mother
101. Miss Sharon (a lady who looked
102. as if she had learnt to smile
103. out of a book)


104. After a while
105. they said he was too hard-ears
106. to amount to anything
107. and left him alone


108. He'd go by the shore
109. and practise writing
110. (without a pen):


111. First he blew breath across the water
112. “Ah-”


113. After that
114. every day
115. he'd go and call out
116. Ah
117. O


118. Ah-o
119. Ah-o
120. Ah-


121. He threw the sounds across
122. the ocean like stones hoping
123. they'd hit
124. something


125. rebound off


126. someone
127. he couldn't give
128. a name to


129. but only by an echo
130. returning
131. would he know:
132. the ocean wasn't as empty
133. as he was


134. Every day now


135. Ah-o
136. Ah-o
137. Ah


138. Till one day
139. he managed:


140. Ah-o
141. Ah-o
142. Ma-


143. Soon the sounds
144. would make syllables
145. the syllables
146. would make words
147. the words
148. would make phrases
149. the phrases
150. would make poems


151. His mother
152. would never read them
153. she was too busy
154. swabbing out
155. a hospital
156. in Reading
157. England


158. After so many years
159. she no longer even
160. thought of him
161. (or anything else
162. for that matter)
163. gazing
164. day after day
165. into
166. that
167. pail
168. of water


169. Until
170. one day
171. as she sluiced out
172. a ward
173. she fancied she heard
174. someone
175. calling her name


176. Ma-


177. It sounded as if
178. it came
179. from the
180. pail
181. it sounded like
182. her rightful name
183. (not the name
184. – Miss Black –
185. by which she
186. was known here)
187. No one here
188. knew that name


189. Ah-o
190. Ah-o
191. Ma-


192. Each day she poured
193. more and more
194. water
195. on the floor
196. to try to
197. capture that sound


198. Miss Black
199. Matron said
200. (finally)
201. this just
202. won't do


203. No she said
204. turning the taps
205. on full
206. flooding
207. the ward
208. pouring out
209. and ocean
210. from her pail
211. standing
212. by that shore
213. she clearly heard
214. her name now


215. Ma-


216. I must go she said
217. taking off her shoes


218. I must go now
219. taking off her overalls


220. I must go to my –
221. stripping off her clothes


222. – son


223. in Aenon Town, Jamaica –


224. stepping into
225. the water
226. (as they rushed
227. to restrain her)


228. – my son
229. my s –


230. Standing on that far shore
231. he heard at last rebound
232. the sound he'd sent
233. though slightly bent
234. by distance


235. and without conscious intent
236. he started walking


237. to meet it