Across the Sea

Do you have a song you can go through for months, even years without hearing and the next time you hear it, it tastes like a sweet piece of your childhood? Well for me one of those songs is “Dreamland” by Marcia Griffiths. Since February is Reggae Month, on the radio you hear every era of reggae music there is, repeatedly. As a child who grew up in the 1990s, this is one of the songs that I would hear all the time on the radio, because my grandmother -saying great-grandmother is too much- would always have the radio on one particular station and this at times was in heavy rotation. So it reminds me of love, the love she had for me reflected in all the sacrifices she made so I lacked nothing. It reminds me of how free I was as a child, free to tell the truth and speak my mind, to be myself -which was often a most precocious child – and to just not worry about what was happening all around me. It reminds me of nights my cousin Gandy and I would have impromptu sing-offs on the verandah where our grandmother would yell at us to, “stop the noise before she shut us up”. And we would stop for a while and then continue, because, hey what were a few minutes of passionate beatings for a good time. Now, those moments, that time, seem so dreamy, bittersweet dreams. At that time we did not know we were making memories that would sustain us through the harsh realities of life. Those moments are frozen in time and from time to time something triggers is to go back and look, and smile teary-eyed smiles of great nostalgic euphoria. So I offer this poem which today this song triggered. I hope you enjoy it.

Across the Sea

What lies there is beyond imagining
only the finer things
at your finger tips
straight to your lips.
nothing as sweet
as knowing your life is complete
your treasure
wild nectar 
dripping slowly down your throat
to hit that sweet spot
then press repeat.
Let's ride the waves of this waterfall
water so pristine
so clear and true
until we hear the call
to levitate to the sky
and count them stars.

After all
this is our dream
we belong to this world
nothing is too extreme
anything and anyone can be redeemed.
After all
isn't this heaven?
Isn't this a dreamland?