de Man
IV
Jesus Meets His Mother
When dis child
Jesus was a likl bwoy
Me was apprentice to him Pa.
A real funny ’prentice!
Me was a big man, forty plus,
Wid one hand twist, de next
One chop off at de wrist.
But dat man Joseph teach
Me how to use hammer
And saw and chisel wid
Mi twist hand and mi stump.
…Still is de lady Mary
Dat me couldn’t take
Mi two eye from. And so
Me watch her, so she watch
Dat child. An all de while
She going on doing what
She have to do. Me cyaan ex-
Plain to yuh. Is like she
Know dis child is de most
Precious thing and like — just
How him running up and
Down chasing him ball — she
Seeing him dying right dere
As she look.
So me just
Have to do a likl
Jostling here today. Me
Know just now she seeing
Before her eye what she
Was looking at for all
Dem years. See. Is de self-
Same countenance she gazing
On him wid… And him…
Oh Jesus, don’t look pon
Her so. She know you love
Her right down to yuh toe.
She know yuh never want
To leave her so. She know
Jah say is so it haffe
Go. From yuh was likl
Jesus, she did know.
Reviews of de man
“Caribbean Bookshelf (November/December 1995): A Round-Up of New Books About the Caribbean.” Caribbean Beat, no. 16, 1995.
Carr, Brenda. “Caribbean Word Power.” Canadian Literature, no. 154, 1997, pp. 136–137.
Ganz, Shoshannah, and Stephanie McKenzie. “Saltfish and Ackee: An Interview with Pamela Mordecai.” Postcolonial Text, vol. 6, no. 1, 2011. PDF.
Nash, Roger. Review of De Man: A Performance Poem, by Pamela Mordecai. Canadian Book Review Annual
Wilson, Jeanne. “Agony, Ecstasy of His Last Journey.” The Sunday Gleaner, 28 May 1995.