KWEE Liberian Literary Magazine Jan. Iss. Vol. 0115 Mar Vol. 0315 | Page 25

Liberian Literary Magazine

Diaspora Poet
Jumbi Eyes
I hold the eyes in
cupped hands.
Black pupils dot red orbs
so many, so tiny
they slip through my
fingers.
Some West Indians stay
away
fear jumbi eyes that
glow
like hot embers in the
dark
if you set your mind on
them.
Jumbis repossess their
eyes
at midnight, chant in
your ears,
Tek me back weh you
get me from.
The daring scour the
bush
for the beady eyes,
pluck them from pods
soak them in water
and pierce the pupils
with thick sharp needles,
string them on twine.
Tourists rush vendors
in search of mementos
braided hair, a photo-op
with an iguana, a
donkey,
and that t-shirt that reads
I be jammin.
They buy a jumbi bead
necklace,
sail away, fly off,
beads clasping their
throats,
not knowing the dead
are tourists too.
*Jumbi- the spirit of the dead.

March Issue 0315

© Althea Mark-Romeo
Althea Romeo-Mark

Born in Antigua, West
Indies, Althea Romeo-Mark
is
an
educator
and
internationally published
writer who grew up in St.
Thomas, US Virgin Islands.
She has lived and taught in
St. Thomas, Virgin Islands,
USA, Liberia (1976-1990),
London, England (19901991), and in Switzerland
since 1991.
She
taught
at
the
University of Liberia (19761990). She is a founding
member of the Liberian
Association
of
Writers
(LAW) and is the poetry
editor
for
Seabreeze:
Journal
of
Liberian
Contemporary Literature.
She was awarded the
Marguerite Cobb McKay
Prize by The Caribbean
Writer in June, 2009 for
short story “Bitterleaf, (set
in Liberia).” If Only the
Dust Would Settle is her
last poetry collection.
She has been guest poets at
the International Poetry

25

Festival
of
Medellin,
Colombia(2010),
the
Kistrech
International
Poetry
Festival,
Kissi,
Kenya (2014) and The
Antigua
and
Barbuda
Review of Books 10th
Anniversary
Conference,
Antigua and Barbuda(2015)
She has been published in
the US Virgin Islands,
Puerto Rico, the USA,
Germany, Norway, the UK,
India, Colombia, Kenya,
Liberia and Switzerland.
More publishing history can
be found at her blog site:
www.aromaproductions.bl
ogspot.com