About the Author:
Yakima Cuffy is an Attorney-at-law and a talented writer of poems, short stories, and plays. She dedicates time to participate in spoken poetry events, literary festivals, and short story competitions. Originally written for her grandmother, this poem won 2nd place prize for the English Poetry category of the Dominica Independence Literary Competition in 2018.

 

At the crack of dawn,

Her flip-flop footsteps

Are the leaven

That bids all the village arise.

Her madras head tie catches the sun

And reflects off her skin – golden brown,

Like the loaves she carries

In a straw basket

Deeper than her wrinkles

And wider than her smile.

Her arms are firm as wooden pestles –

Strong from the kneading of dough

And the fanning of flames in stone ovens.

Her walk is an ancient creole folksong

That invites stray dogs to her side –

Her companions for morning transactions,

Demanding only a few crumbs

For their service.

The aroma of fresh bread

Baked in caves of earth and stone

Is enough

To send customers flocking

From verandas, to roadsides

Anxiously awaiting her arrival.

Each loaf is, after all, the perfect medley

Of an answered prayer

For daily bread

And the heart’s indulgence

Of something warm and decadent

For breakfast.

All the village marvels

At the way she hums Methodist hymns

While sifting through

The hills and hinterlands of the village

By foot,

Sometimes on mornings cold enough

To see your breath on the wind,

And again, in the evenings

When the sun shatters beneath the horizon,

Spilling its orange and purple and scarlet

Across the sky.

But the mystery of her strength

Lies in God, and country.

It lies in yesterday’s David and tomorrow’s Maria

And tears and laughter

And river baths

And ration

And land, green to brown

To green again.

The mystery of her strength

Lies in the eight children she delivered by a midwife

And the husband who drinks and curses

And wastes his wages

On strange women

Every fortnight.

The mystery of her strength

Lies in a love

As warm,

And timeless,

And satisfying

As the taste of fresh bread

Baked to perfection

In caves of earth and stone.