Borrowers
when we lived in a white house,
with five fingers* and cherry trees
and mango trees,
swinging primates
would fly from branch to branch
echoing howls back and forth,
from opened windows to roofs
and throwing mango seeds to the ground
they howl at each other
and grin
their sharp little
teeth
peeling bells of mischief
my mother would curse and bit her tongue
at the lingering refuse.
my father would remind her, that these trees
were theirs first – that these woods chopped
to make homes, were theirs first – that these
grounds had been mud beds for them.
we were borrowers
of the white house
the five fingers and cherry trees
and the mango trees.
—
* This is the Guyanese term for Star Fruit or Carambola.
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Makeda K. Braithwaite is a Guyanese writer who has been writing since childhood, scribbling on the back of receipts and filling notebooks as a teenager. As an adult, she is an editor at the University of Guyana Press and a Submissions Editor for Uncanny Magazine. Her work has appeared in Fiyah Literary Magazine, blueii magazine, and anthologies Crimson Bones from Brigids Gate Press and Spacefunk from MVmedia. Her chapbook, Go Fish: Go in De Pack was published in 2024 by Bamboo Talk Press. Her publications can be found here.
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Stone Poetry Quarterly 