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lyrics

This was after we had buried my father
In the soft earth of the Santa Cruz valley
That same graveyard on the hill
Where our whole clan
Will eventually be replanted
And we swung dirges in the midday
As the shepherd and his flock
Dealt with my father, they had placed
White flowers around his neck
But oh, when that first dirt dash the casket lid
No amount of ritual can protect you
From that sound - when it hits

We lit candles upon the tumulus
Of dirt which lay heavy upon him
Heavier than when I pressed his breastbone in the chapel
While outside, beyond the farmlands , deep in the country
The river continued to run, not knowing
That my father had died

And we waited until he was
Well settled in the dirt before we left
And back at the house I started rapping
With the cousin with the long-long dread
That wrap up in a scroll - the one with the biblical name
The one who say he don’t communicate by computer

This was when we were standing at the gate
Ready to leave that house of mourning
This was after the jewel bag get bring out
And my brother and I had to choose which as heirlooms
The silver ring with the raised initials of his name
But he laughed and he never told me what those letters spelled
When I asked him in 1978

See me walking the yard
Hip in my English waistcoat
Tall in the saddle like big scissors cutting
And Mama D, Mama D
Who also loved him, and who could tell you the names
Of all his children, even those he forgot
She was saying, Look, look how you end up where you is
When things coulda been so different
Well is all them prayers and benediction
Your people put on you
Coming down through generation
The hope was you
Is the asafoetida the ol’ lady burn
All the pray she pay till her knees burst open
And all those orisons must have conjured some power
Till her love became a chant to kill death
A fetish to protect you on this journey
We may live and die, but what is between is ours to keep
She gave what she had.

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Anthony Joseph Trinidad and Tobago

Anthony Joseph is a poet, novelist, musician and lecturer described as ‘the leader of the black avant-garde in Britain’. His written work and performance occupies a space between surrealism, Jazz and the rhythms of Caribbean speech and music.

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