CORINNE BINNINGS
The Ananda Alert system for reporting missing children was launched on May 19, 2009, in honour of Ananda Dean, an 11-year-old student of the Swallowfield All-Age School, who went missing on September 17, 2008.
I don’t play
in water
dat wash me
above the ankle anymore
an’ I stop giggling
soon as a man
look too long
at my too young chest
all I know is
dem things mean
death
I don’t know how
I know
but something
tell me
that water
that wander
too far up
the legs mean
me no good
an man
dat look too hard
at a girl-child’s chest
will soon
turn his eyes up
her legs
cause dat’s all
man know
then one day
search party
find you headless
or under
some deep water
body mangled
in a death pose
hands and legs
poised as if for flight
I know death
not partial
that old hog
take as he wish
and he won’t stop
now so if water
come and man
come I’ll take my legs
and my laughter
and run fast fast
Corrine is a Jamaican poet and teacher who recently completed the MFA Creative Writing (Poetry) program at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). She has published both Poetry and Creative Nonfiction the Dark River Review, Brine and The Caribbean Writer. Corrine seeks, simply, to write what the tongue finds too heavy to say; her writing focuses on, among other things, historical, personal and collective trauma. She is currently looking for a publisher for her first manuscript, Residue, while working on the second.
