MANASSEH --means "causing to forget"

MANASSEH

The ships came and docked
From ashore we watched
Anchors dropped
On time, stopped
And waded to our rocks
Men who knew us before we knew ourselves


MANASSE

We awoke from his blow
Heads ached, knees bowed
Muddled knowing
On boats going
Steam engines rowed on
Highs seas took us and stopped, and once stopped, kept moving


MANASS

We are broken and beaten
Our time knows no season
Strength weakened
Gifts taken
Fettered ankles, we sit in
The filth they have built with the strength of our bowels


MANAS

Day new like a risen sun
Our labour has borne us free sons
Rights won
Songs done sung
Victories overcome
We will eat the fruits nature brought with us


MANA

We become out of many one sheep
We follow them until they sleep
A talented people
A cunning people
When you sow we reap
We have it all figured out, the thief set to catch his kind


MAN

She brown, eh, son, marry her
You'll get a prettier daughter
Mother helper
Father gardener
Work is getting harder
Harder to find, step up man, step up inna life


MA

Head top gyal and mek yuh money
Shot a battybwoi cah nutten nuh funny
Sell value for nanny
For likki and nyami
Everybody out for everybody
We don't recognize Jamaica, something about us got lost at sea


M- M-

Whatever was I about to say?

Caught

Caught in a web of desire

Resigning

To fall without love

That blessing we touch

Without grasping it

We lust

Trapped in the clouds

We walk on

The ninth

And like

The fear

We dare

To ignore

To touch

The one thing

We know

That tells us

We are

Caught in a web of desire

Resigning

To fall without love

That blessing we touch

Without grasping it

We lust

Trapped in the clouds

We walk on

The ninth

And like

The fear

We dare

To ignore

To touch

The one thing

We know

That tells us

We are

Caught

Music Playing Always

Music always plays
Someone's keys raises
Notes so light like
Shrill sighs slight
Sound chains linked in
My hearing thin, stringed
Instruments wail, hail
The mind's failing veil
Of my sanity, verily
Of my vanity entirely
I am strong
Though small
Only one
It edges me on
Until I listen
Until I sing with
The rich mistress
In the red dress
It is enough
That I am
Only one
With the music playing always in my ears

Rock right, right
Left light strikes
Booms, bumps, thumps
Raps, dum di dum
The swaying addicting
The addicted lifting
Up my spirit, flying, it
Makes it worth it
If I listen, just listen
Allow it in, in my slim
Chance of living
Surviving
My mind rapped in
The peace
It releases
My grief
I can feel
I feel
I become
One with me
With the music playing always in my ears