Baby-father, Jah-Jah,
don’t abandon me now!
Dis is very rough waters. Steer me
as I go. I have company here
in my womb, no two ways about dat.
As Archangel take off, as him reel
out him wings, my whole body swim in
to de plenty of tings, for it hug
up de world, sky and sun,
lake and sea, fish, fowl, sheep,
goat and cow, crawling thing,
bush, flower, tree—
is like all creation living inside me.
And is not only dat, for it singing a song
and each spurt of my blood,
every breath I breathe—
it drumming in time to dat tune.
What growing inside me is not just a baby,
is every last ting! How me going to recount
dat to Ma? Or to Pa? Or Joseph?
Never mind how me try?
How me going to explain dat same time
my body is transported wid joy
is choking wid dread?
from de book of Mary: a performance poem (Mawenzi House, 2015)
Pamela Mordecai (born 1942) is a Jamaican poet, novelist, short story writer, and scholar of Caribbean literature and culture, living in Toronto. Born and raised in Kingston, she earned a PhD in English from the University of the West Indies and has taught language arts at secondary and postsecondary levels. She often writes in Jamaican Creole, such as for de Man (1995)—a verse play about the crucifixion of Jesus—and the two follow-up collections of narrative poems about Jesus’s parents: de book of Mary (2015) and de book of Joseph (2022).
Art & Theology 