Erika made us wet

Erika made us wet One man say unless we throw Jonah from the boat 'storm na gonna stop come' because 'de man evil'. A next one say "is a qualing we get , for we send tear gas and bullet after man who demonstrate for them right". A Saint Jo woman say " they didn't want to fix one road , now they have to fix all road". Another man say how come they never clean the rivers before hurricane season . A lot of people say the bridges are too low, especially the one to Goodwill with its hard wall which caused most of town to flood and the Chinee one which caused problems for Save-a-Lot, KFC , the Market and surrounding streets. A religious man just say 'is a marvel'.

The day after, I met some people at the northern end of the old new bridge, their face red with contempt saying if it was not for that wall, gas station gone, Miniyas gone, Raffoul gone and more, then they went on 'them had so much to say about the wall'. I said the dispute was not about the wall but about who get to do it and at what price. One of them ask me if it was my brother whether I would not give it to him. I say, not if $100,000 more coming from my pocket and my brother incompetent. They just would not listen so I got tempted to speak to them in their language and say, if Jonah and his waychns had block the hole in the wall, that some say was there for more than two years, the church would be standing strong, nothing would be wrong with the house next door, Ma Swansea would not be hanging, the road would still be there and them car wash boys would not be unemployed, but I did not. You see, Erika had shaken she bottom and slung enough mud already. Now for a nursery rhyme: WOYOYO

The day the 365 flowed

Unbelievable.

As if it had snowed

A marvel .

A three hour downpour

Brought mountains to the shore

Walls, culverts and bridges

Were no match for the water's reaches

Decades dry river beds

Harbored raging torrents with full heads .

That early morn

The unseen storm

Plastered all with sand and mud

Molded with human blood.

T'was dry for months before

And many prayed for a downpour

But what we got

We needed not
A year's supply

In the twinkle of an eye

Destruction, death and doom

All joy swept clean as if with a broom

Here, there and everywhere

T'was just despair

Mountain, valley and plain

T'was all the same

Loose ground, boulders and broken trees

A nation brought to its knees.

They'd told us that

Of Erika we'd have no part

So we went to our beds
With no worry in our heads

Only to rise

To a big surprise

The bridge is gone

The church is done

In Savanne and Soufriere were dead

And maybe more the radio said.

We knew it was no joke

When our phones didn' work

Had the end of the world come

Oh Erika you evil storm .

Now that she's long gone

And Fred never came around

Are we gonna play dead

Or get to work instead

Toil hand in hand

Clear the silt and the sand

Brace our shoulders

Move those boulders

Talk man to man

Come up with a new plan

Rebuild this land

It's our home , our island

No more division
Just Brotherman .

Leonardo Joshua

"Wake up everybody/ No more sleeping in bed/ No more backward thinking/ Time for thinking ahead/ Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes