When September Comes AND OTHER POEMS
Peter Jailall
NATURAL HERITAGE BOOKS
TORONTO
Copyright © 2003 Peter Jailall
All rights reserved. No portion of this book, with the exception of brief extracts for the purpose of literary or scholarly review, may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the publisher.
Published by Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc.
P.O. Box 95, Station O, Toronto, Ontario M4A 2M8
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Jailall, Peter, 1944-
When September comes and other poems / Peter Jailall.
ISBN 1-896219-83-7
I. Title.
PS8569.A414W54 2003 C811’.54 C2003-903575-1
Cover and text design by Derek Chung
Front Cover Photograph: Ralph Newton Photography
Edited by Melissa Hughes
Printed and bound in Canada by Hignell Book Printing, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc. acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We acknowledge the support of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) and the Association for the Export of Canadian Books.
Dedication
In memory of my grandparents: Mohabir (godfather) Bhudni (Miss Lil) Ramrattan (Hollan) and Rajwantie (Brownie).
Contents
Fire Fire Bun me Haan
The Terrifying Gaze
For Mervyn
Estate Coolie
Coolie Come
Khatun from Skeldon
When Cheddi Died
Noisy Mornings
Just a Drop of Ink
Nani Goes to Vote
Intellectual Arrogance
Hindu College Days
Working with Devotion
Aspects of Indrani
Jagan & Burnham
A Guyanese Christmas
The Ole Country
The Moon
Mother Bird
Travelling Through the Woods
Trying to Catch Nature
After Life
Two Umbrella Trees
Walking on Dams
It’s Not Easy
Rocking in my Hammock
Exercising in Georgetown
High Tide
Healing Water
The Fruit Seller
Blackout
Iron Works
Poet’s Work
I Can’t Go Home
Killing Machines
What my Father Taught me
I Thought I was a Guyanese
Letter to Kamala-Jean
Second Migration
About the Author
In this book of poems, I continue to engage in the search for the place called home on my journey to full Canadian citizenship. Although Guyana, “ole” country of my birth, has become violent and full of terror, pleasant memories of my birthplace continue to linger in my mind. Canada is my present home, but I have been returning to teach in Guyana since 1987. Like many new Canadians, I feel safe and somewhat settled in this landscape where I can go to sleep with an open door. But post September 11th, none of us can return to feelings of absolute security—suddenly we are all living under open, dangerous skies. These poems illustrate my journey to become both a Canadian and a global citizen with many identities, while celebrating the beauty of the natural environment in both of my homelands. I can’t return to the Guyana of my childhood, but through my poems I’m able to explore the cultural and political tensions between past and present, East and West, and how these changes manifest in myself and my search for identity. In the same sense, I hope to challenge my readers, generally, and especially those in positions of authority, to look for
