[Ian McDonald and Peter Jailall, People of Guyana, Canada: MiddleRoad Publishers, 2018. 91pp.]
Estate Talk
Auntie Finey
Standing by de pailin
Engaging in discourse:
“A wen you cum, bet?”
“Me cum yestiday, Auntie”
“A how you do na bet?”
“Me deh auntie”
“How you du?”
“Wa me gu tell you, me picknee
pain a kill me
Ya walk all ova me baady”
“ah how uncle do, Auntie?”
“Beti, da man a ge me too much worries
As soon as e get e money
E gaan a rum shap
Night an day ya dhakolay daru
Da man da
Na kay if
Good Friday faal
Pan a Sateday.”
– Peter Jailall
Kowsilla
The bosses made demands:
‘Weed cleaner!’
“Weed lower and faster!”
They had to eat standing in the rain
Or eat sitting in the scorching sun.
But Kowsilla and the women said:
“No!”
Only to face the deadly colonial machine
That mowed her down.
March 6 1964 was a dreadful day
When the tractor at Leonora
Crushed Kowsilla.
All Guyana stood still.
The wailing began
Followed by the long, angry procession
Moving and moulding the movement.
The people buried their heroine –
Young, beautiful, courageous.
– Peter Jailall
Nani Goes to Vote
My Nani Painee turns out to vote.
The English-speaking returning officer asks,
“Lady, do you want to swear by the Bible?”
“Na!” Nani Painee replies.
“By the Gita?”
“Bell a wa den,” Nani says, disgusted.
“Well, repeat after me, the officer says.
“I, Painee, do solemnly swear…”
“Eh Hey,” murmurs Nani.
“Lady, please repeat after me.”
Nani, who hardly speaks a word of English,
answers
“Me dun taak am in me mine aredy.”
– Peter Jailall
In 2018 two friends, Ian McDonald and Peter Jailall, who they admitted, “come from very different backgrounds and living experiences”, but who, “over the years, formed a strong friendship”, jointly published a collection of poetry titled People of Guyana. They declared: “We write out of different poetic traditions and inspirations but in this book our theme is the same – the nature and, in particular, the marvellous fortitude of people in all their variety”.
