Jesus speem!
What a sight to behold
Nubian beauty
As fine as pure gold
Went down a yard without a plan
Just taking a break from a situation
Had no conceived intentions
Until a royal rose apple forced my hand
Her royal highness firm in her Nubian skin
Standing in her rosemary bush garden, gleaming
Holding the sun in her hair
Her glory shining everywhere
Like an African rainbow caressing a mountain peak
Had to rise to the occasion before I speak
How yuh mek her God
For this visitation
I am glad
A nutmeg and vanilla Massa God
Reveal her secrets
I want her bad
A going to paint her across the sky
Right below Massa God iye
For protection night and day
Keep the predators at bay
How yuh mek her Massa God
What yuh put eena her Massa God
She had all of Queen Isis’ secrets
Athena couldn’t match her wits
Dazzling me as a magic wand
Wondered if I should dip
Or should I stand
She calculated me before I spoke
Said her love was no joke
Won’t compete with anyone
If you are taken move along
Tried to walk away, but mi heart wasn’t leaving
Put mi foot in a gear, and mi knee start seizing
A going to paint her across the sky
Right below Massa God iye
For protection night and day
Keep the predators at bay
How did yuh mek her Massa God
What yuh put in her Massa God
Your highness I proposed
Strip me of my fleshy robes
Wash my transgressions in your mineral springs
Enter mi hear, come live within
Close the doors lock the windows
I’m committing to you forever
Let me glow like the banks of the
Nubian princess never leave mi
Comes what may I do
She said take my hand
I feel the same way too.
A going to paint her across the sky
Right below Massa God iye
For protection night and day
Keep the predators at bay
How yuh mek her God
For this visitation
I am glad
A nutmeg and vanilla Massa God
Reveal her secrets
I want her bad.
For Alton Ellis, O.D.
I couldn’t take itSeeing you standing in lineIn this time
With a meal ticketYour black felt crown shading, just barely
Your majesty’s face
From the blazing Miami sun
Coming down without mercy
As you waited patiently, off stage
For a meal
You had already paid for in Trench TownFather, take my hand and sit
I will serve you.
For how could I, how could they
How could we not know better
When you had given us so much
With your song dance sermons ?How could we not know
You stopped this very dance from crashing
Long ago…
Giving us love melodies
That kept us dancing
Holding us together as one
When hungry belly suffering threatened
To make us all victims?How could we not know you are a pillar
Of the movement that gave us our culture
That you soared before Paragons and Heptones
Feathering from Brown to Beres
To Sanchez crooning
And all the rest of us who hide
Behind blinking facades,
Trying to deny your legacy?But let them tryFor no longer will they see
Feel a weeping willow rocking steady, center stage
No longer will they feel
See black man tears bursting flowing
The gully banks of a black man’s face
No longer will they hear the cock crowing
Sunday coming…
Prepare the sweet seasoning
For the one day of the week when
Sufferers had good diningNo longer will they know
That love is all that matters between souls
And forever “I’m still in love
With you girl” will lingerThe deejays will still spin you
Yesteryear souls will rock steady, get closer
At Merrytone gathering
Choking up reliving, celebrating
A time when love meant something
When the music was as sweet as honey
Pressed from live waxLosing you is hotLike seeing yard without Blue Mountain peaks
Unfathomable, undeniable
Father Alton…