LIVING WITH 3 RASTA MEN (Poem)

LIVING WITH 3 RASTA MEN

By Farah Lawal Harris, 2025

At my first estate sale,

I was most certainly a black fly

surrounded by chaotic, grieving

white milk,

a flurry of Spanish-speaking movers

hastily emptying 70+ years of memories.

I came for the teak Bernhardt side tables,

a Facebook Marketplace steal,

and drove off with my small sedan stuffed to the brim

with extra items given to me for free—

most notably,

an original Uralda Brown wood-carving.

Ancestor Vida Uralda Brown

was born in Clarendon, Jamaica

and transitioned in Winnipeg, Canada.

Her sculpture features three Rasta men

with their long locks and beards entangling.

“Dreadlocks can’t live in a tenement yard,”

and they no longer stay on the same redlined street

where an old Karen drove past me,

mouth agape, asking sharply:

“You’re moving?”

Brethren,

you are free with me.

Here, the living is easy.

Here, the sun beams through large picture windows

and more than three little birds sing sweet songs each morning,

reminding us that every little thing

will be made right,

Jah willing.

—

Written for Day 4 of National Poetry Writing Month