Why Not the West Indies?

Why Not the West Indies?

Why not the West Indies, Mr. Dyson?

Why Istanbul,

Why not the West Indies?

You said you had to correct

our dictation papers,

our spelling of

immediately, certainly

while there was a ship

in the harbour with

'English people', you said

'drinking and dancing'

and you gave us to understand

in the little English we spoke

that you felt marooned

doomed

to wait out the days

of your white, fragile burden

here, on our shores

But why here Mr. Dyson?

Why not the West Indies?

*

And at last, your labour paid

I spell words like Roseau, Windward

and chase them across time zones.

Now, I take photographs of calabashes

as if they were my daffodils

certainly, Roseau, calabashes

the mist that is sitting on the blue hills

and a thousand other creation stories.