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Rain nuh sweet like one time
May 17, 2017
I remember as a child when the thought of rain made me smile. Now that I'm an adult, rain often just means plans have to be postponed and business spoil. Funny, eh? Fi real peeps, first time days, except for the rare times of serious and extreme weather, rain used to always seem so pleasant to me. I used to love the sight, smell and sounds of rain as a child. You too?
I remember thoroughly enjoying the comforting and rhythmic sound of rain beating 'like bullets on the roof' or 'the swish of water in the gullies', as poet H.D. Carberry so evocatively described it in the seminal piece Nature.
Yeah, man, I used to love my first time pickney days when rain fall long and hard until school nuh bother keep. You remember dem days deh? I really miss dem. How about you?
Nowadays, when rain fall, it's not just school. Nothing at all nuh keep. From weekend gone till now mother earth has been flowing with water all around Jamaica, as sister sky continues to weep. Yesterday it came so hard and went on for so long that my roof never keep. The road and the sidewalks stop keep. Plenty dance and party and stage show that were planned eventually never keep, and nuff people workplace never keep. In fact, it look like everybody vibes get wet up and the whole a Jamaica never keep.
Look yah nuh man, I had many things planned for yesterday. I was prepared to take on the rain. But a porous roof and an invasion of water required all-day management. Then I got a Whatsapp message with an advisory purportedly issued by the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
It listed several roads that were impassable. The list included Bog Walk gorge, sections of St John's Road, Sunnyside in Linstead, Spanish Town Road in vicinity of Three and Six miles, Hagley Park, Portia Simpson Miller Square, sections of Marcus Garvey Drive, Maxfield Avenue, Windward Road, Mountain View Avenue, Deanery Road, Harbour View, Camp and South Camp, Mona Road, and August Town Road.
That advisory sealed the deal. Proverbs 4:7 says, "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding." So mi just wise up and stay put.
I'm just waiting now to recite that last line of the Carberry poem, "beauty comes suddenly and the rains have gone".
