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The Punt Trench by Guyanese-Canadian Author Ken Puddicombe
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Memory.
Early morning rains sweeping
Away the sludge of the
Previous day. Washing the
Torpor of the night into
The Punt Trench. Fast moving torrential
Waves flashing through
The koker to the raging Atlantic.
Despair.
The Punt Trench is a dumping
Ground filled with debris and
Castoffs. Empty shell of a car.
Rusting frame of a bicycle. Bags of
Garbage piled in mounds. A dog's bloated
Carcass. Tall paragrass and wild eddo bush
Reaching to the sky.
Change.
From the koker in Public Road
All the way to the Backdam
The Punt Trench is now Independence
Boulevard. Every time the breeze zips
Across from the north-east,
It reeks and fills my
Nostrils. Repulsive
Odours.
Hope.
The shrill cry of a kiskadee.
The high pitched discordant
Whistle of a blue saki.
The cooing of a dove.
Life goes on!
NOTES:
Backdam - Earth dam, also used as a roadway, at the rear boundary
of a sugar estate constructed to prevent flooding of cane-fields and
other crops.
Koker - Large sluice controlling drainage and irrigation of agricultural
lands and residential properties during high tide.
Punt - Flat-bottomed iron barge for carrying harvested sugar canes.
Punt Trench - Part of a system of canals or trenches for transporting
harvested sugar cane from the fields to the factory.
SOURCE: Unfathomable And Other Poems by Ken
Puddicombe, published by MiddleRoad Publishers, Toronto,
Canada, 2020.
KEN PUDDICOMBE, a
Guyanese-Canadian author
and book publisher, is an
accountant by profession
before retiring to pursue his
love of writing.
His writing has appeared in
newspapers and literary
journals in Canada and the
United Kingdom. His genre is
historical fiction with special
focus on Canada, the
Caribbean, and Guyana.
Unfathomable And Other
Poems (2020) is his first book
of poetry.
His published books of fiction
include:
~ Down Independence
Boulevard And Other
Stories (2017);
~ Junta (2014); and
~ Racing With The Rain
(2012).
This collection of poems peels back the curtain on this
remote corner of the world to reveal Guyana in all its
beauty and ugliness. These poignant, emotionally
satisfying and individualistic poems breathe life, and
death, into the Guyanese experience.
~ MICHAEL JOLL, AUTHOR OF PERFECT EXECUTION AND PERSONS OF
INTEREST, IN PRAISE FOR UNFATHOMABLE AND OTHER POEMS.
This collection...captures and paints the landscape of
vibrant memories and sombre shadows which have
shaped identity, and invites readers to envisage how
their sense of selves may be located in their lived
experiences.
~ DIANA ABRAHAM, ACADEMIC IN THE FIELD OF TRANSNATIONAL
MIGRATION, IDENTITY, AND BELONGING, IN PRAISE FOR
UNFATHOMABLE AND OTHER POEMS.
UNFATHOMABLE AND OTHER POEMS
KEN PUDDICOMBE
MIDDLEROAD PUBLISHERS CANADA 2020
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