Gregory Gumbs – Ⅳ
Ooh, Mother
My work
The words
These sentences
Fumbling, stumbling, murmuring,
Sometimes even purely exploratory
Ooh, mother
Is nothing but an attempt
A profound longing
A furtive search
Yet, still a necessary hope
of this restless exile returning
Desperately trying to approximate
Ooh, mother
The Caribbean songs
The Caribbean stories
The life-sustaining vocabulary
You once so lovingly gifted me
in the mother’s tongue.
My work
The words
These sentences
Fumbling, stumbling, murmuring,
Sometimes even purely exploratory
Ooh, mother
Is nothing but an attempt
A profound longing
A furtive search
Yet, still a necessary hope
of this restless exile returning
Desperately trying to approximate
Ooh, mother
The Caribbean songs
The Caribbean stories
The life-sustaining vocabulary
You once so lovingly gifted me
in the mother’s tongue.
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