Famous Faces, Famous Places and Famous Foods
Beginning of a Day in Heaven
Come morning,
I stretch languidly in an old Jamaican hardwood bed
raise my browned arms high and taut
in the fan cooled sea-still air
Turn my tousled dream-filled head
toward the wooden slats that I opened wide
in last nights reggae rave
with you
The night was Red Stripe beer
and negative-ion scented air
set against a lightning slashed starless black-skinned sky backed by Rasta rain and dancehall tunes
Morning come, I lie still
alone in the blackwood loft
of our tiny pink octagonal cabin
perched higher than the sky
on towering stilts
over Negril's flat and shining sea
The gentle rhythmic breathing
of the still sleeping Caribbean waters
now breaks brilliant blue
in this early, lovely hour
Without dressing,
I descend the limestone hewn staircase
to the calmest of iridescent seas
I feel lighter than the solitary cloud that blows by quick as a street child with his kite
as I slice the top of the clear turquoise water
The sea is my body temperature
I do not exist
Underneath me
fishes dressed in polka dots,
stripes and geometric designs
stroll and dart in an under-sea fashion parade
I am an invisible voyeur
as I float buoyant as the child's careless kite
I watch the cocktail colored party fish
in retro threads of Picasso pink,
paw paw purple,
Gauguin green,
yah mon yellow,
Brueghel's blue
Kissing and Kissing at sea plants and coral -- the fishiest
of love affairs
Schools of tiny babies perform line dances
to a Jamaican Jah beat
Some fish are round as pomegranates,
others lead with Cyrano De Bergerac's long nose
but all are perfectly painted
by an unseen artist's hand
and all switch their tails
(like Jamaican girls out for a stroll)
to propel them down their own watery highway
For your own Beginning of a Day in Heaven:
Request more information on accommodation in Negril's west end through the Jamaica Tourist Board 1-800-233-4582 or (876)929-9200 Fax: (876) 929-9375. Website: www.jamaicatravel.com
From Moon Travel Handbooks:
Jamaica Handbook by Karl Luntta
3rd Edition, 307 pages, 17 maps
Paperback - Order from Amazon