Liberian Literary Magazine
March Issue 0315
LIBERIAN GIRL
A. DORIS BANKS HENRIES
Upriver girl
Teacher Washington daughter
sitting by the creek
staring dreamily at the water
Voinjama girl
with those cornrows in your hair
and a smile like raindrops
hanging in the forest air
Monrovia girl
How you fine so, you geh?
and my heart weh you stole
wha place you put it eh, you geh?
Mt. Barclay girl
First Baptist Church of Careysburg girl
Sunday morning service after a wild
Saturday night girl
Pressing comb and finger nail polish girl
Kool Aid and milk candy-selling girl
Freshly creased school uniform skirt girl
Those rude boys them won't leave you
alone ehn?
Then when you cuss their ma them,
everybody say, How you frisky so, you
geh?
LU girl, Bromley girl
Cuttington College, PhD girl
House of Bethany girl
And who can forget those Robertsport Vai
girls?
Cape Palmas girl
New Kru Town girl
Rural Foya Market girl
Cross the border twice a day girl
Wartime LURD rebel fighter girl
They say, How you gronah so, you geh?
But they don't know the things you've seen
and the hellish places you've been
so just suck your teeth
and tell them where to go
cuz the Doe-Taylor big shot them
think life dah some kinda chayren show
To them you're just an object
for their desires down below
But for me I got one question
How you marvelous so, you geh?
writer; dean; college
college president
administrator;
Born on February 11, 1913, in Live Oak, FL;
died on February 16, 1981, in Middletown,
CT; married Richard Abrom Henries, 1942;
children: two sons
Education: Willimantic Normal School
(now
Eastern
Connecticut
State
University), BSc, 1920s; graduated from
Connecticut State Teachers' College,
1920s; attended Yale University, 1920s;
attended Hartford Seminary, 1930s;
attended University of Besancon, France,
1930s; Columbia University, MA, 1930s,
PhD, 1930s
Politics: True Whig Party.
Religion: Methodist.
Memberships: (selected):
Liberian National Teachers Organization;
Methodist Board of Education; National
YMCA (Liberia); Society of Liberian
Authors; World Council for Curriculum
and Instruction.
-Tony Barclay Morgan, 2005
32