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Song snippet - Traditional Jamaican ring game song - Pass the Ball
by Faith P. Nelson • April 26, 2024
First published in Luminescent Ships: Love Songs to Caribbean American Life September 2023
Children Children
Yes Mummah
Where have yuh been to
Gran Mummah
What did she give yuh
Bread and pear
Where's my share
Up in the air
How can I reach it
Climb on a broken chair
Suppose I fall
I do not care
Oooo learn you dat manners
The dog
Oooo is the dog
You!
Wi laugh till wi belly hurt wi
hands on knees only for a moment.
Our spindly legs pump as we run
flit like the doctor bird to invisible buds.
From behind yellow and green croton
bushes, a little bit of worn red cloth peeps out.
Finding me is no challenge.
Dandy shandy. Bet yuh cyan lik me.
The As sound long, the Ns a trampoline
the first syllables homing in on the sing-song
iambic rhythm sprouting between our shoulder
blades rolling up and down
around our thin hips like hula hoops.
We leap over the ball, run, fall
bounding up before the ball hits us
slide, not caring about rough gravel
piercing young skin. Gweh bwoy!
Granny bristles at the brawling behavior.
Akimbo, we fling bony bodies
left and right and round and round
sliding the play words free.
Thin high voices float over the valley
Mek we go to the tamarind treeeeeee.
Time to dust off the crisp brown shells
and crack them with our teeth
snaking out the pulpy sweet and sour fruit
We coat them with sugar pinched
from our grandmother's kitchen. Loving
the feast, our mouths spurt juice and praise
our lips shoot with the shiny black seeds.
Light from the Saturday sun, pierce
the treetops landing on the husked shells
and our eyes. Soul says thanks for the fun.
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