Coco Island

By Christine Roseeta Walker

Christine Roseeta Walker's first book is set entirely in Negril, Jamaica. Coco Island presents a compelling cycle of poems, attentive to the undertow and hidden forces that shape a place and its people. In narrative poems, in songs, in fables, in comic scenes, ghost stories and vivid character sketches especially of girls and women Walker artfully lays bare how economic necessity, religious belief, illness and addiction reach far into the structures of family life and community. Piecing together the isolated lives of those left behind as the island modernises, her fearless, memorable poems chart the devastation of a world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Jun 27, 2024
• ISBN: 9781800174016

Christine Roseeta Walker

Christine Roseeta Walker is a Jamaican poet and novelist living on the outskirts of Manchester, England. She studied Creative Writing at the University of Salford and the University of Manchester. Her debut novel, The Grass is Weeping, is a revenge tragedy set in Jamaica. She also works as a commissioned poet with an archaeologist working in the Peak District, and she spends her time writing and organising poetry reading workshops in care homes for people living with dementia.

Book preview

Cover: Coco Island by Christine Roseeta Walker

3

Coco Island

Christine Roseeta Walker

CARCANET POETRY

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Contents

Title Page

Dedication

ONE

Coco Island

Black Sheep

The House

Like Buffalos

TWO

Totems

Drunk Chaperone

The Yellow Inflatable

THREE

The Slow Ones

Brandy Before Bed

Red Leather Bag

it’s now up to you, sorry

The Fallen Christ

FOUR

Blue Lace Dress

The Young Bullfighter

What Should I Call You?

Celia Said

Winston

Auntie Lee6

FIVE

Mermaids

The Birdman

Fireflies

Mother Said

Limbo

SIX

Bible and Key

A Call to Dance

The Wiseman

Donkey Ride

Mischief

Ms

Hot Oil

My Father’s Mother

Yes

SEVEN

Go Tell The Mountains

The Same Psalm

Celia’s Vision

The Tadpoles’ Pond

Nostalgia

The Music

Lady Owl

Michael7

EIGHT

Carrying Water

Gilbert

The Crab-Catchers

Celia’s Vision II

The Frog at Night

When Dogs Dream

NINE

Carnivorous

Paper Kite

The Swivel Chair

Blind Spot

Nine-Night

TEN

Howard’s Oars

Man to Madman

The Pump House

Bloodline

If Me Did Know

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Copyright

8

9

For

Winston Washington

Walker10

1112

COCO ISLAND

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ONE

14

15

Coco Island

From behind the bottle tree, a red sun rises,

shifting colours of pink, orange, and yellow

onto the sand and out into the sea.

From daybreak to nightfall, the Island waits.

Sea-bound, knee-deep in waters too vast

to allow bridges to form between cays.

Each day, glass-bottom boats part waves

to unload the weight of them that come

to dine and dance beneath the bottle tree.

From zinc pits, the scent of meat burning

rises above easy reggae music and euphoric voices

as idle waves lap at the golden sands.

Beneath the bottle tree, they fall in love

with the blue sea and the blue sky blurring,

while the sun turns the evening blood-orange.

But the Island is listening, observing every

gesticulation and conduct until It identifies

them by their attentiveness.

When the Island had hosted them beneath

the bottle tree, they climbed back onto the boats,

delighted to have come to Coco Island.

But often, on the journey back, a sacrifice

must be made — a human offering must be given,

for the Island, too, must feed to survive.

16This is the law of paradise: something taken

for something given. It is Coco Island’s nature —

a muted transaction since its creation.

So, if you should come to Coco Island,

never dance beneath the bottle tree or behave

inattentively: The Island is watching.

17

Black Sheep

Dusk was near, but not nearby enough

for you to miss your way

onto our verandah.

White dress and hair cut like a man’s,

you sat with your legs wide

squinting into the fading light.

Two strangers we were, each one pretending

to know the other — mother, daughter —

daughter, mother, yet unfamiliar.

The black frock you brought was a funeral dress

puffing out at the hems with layers and layers

of black web… webbing

black with mesh netting to wrap

me in… to haul me away in that giant black bag

nesting at your restless heel.

I look at you without thought

like I did on the last Sabbath day I saw you stumbling

down that slippery slope.

When my father stood with me at the front door,

he said that I was the black sheep —

the black sheep… in your eyes.

And now, on this verandah with the black night

crawling in, all thought escapes me as I gaze

into your blue eyes — who are you?

18What were your excuses, then? Ends meet —

you had left to make ends meet, and now you have returned

holding the ends of a severed circle.

You carried the empty bag to my bedroom in silence,

ate quietly at my brother’s table and listened

as I read from a pile of textbooks.

The small double bed sinking under our weight

as we slip the thin cotton sheet over our feet.

You never talked of those lost years

or said why you had come or why you had with you

that empty bag. At daylight, when the rooster crowed thrice

I awoke from my sleep, you were gone.

A dead-ended telephone number fell off the pillow

onto the