Jamaica by George E. Clark
My ancestor came in a terrible dream
One night on a cruise in Jamaica.
Listen real hard and you’ll hear ‘em all scream
Asleep in the bed that they made you.
Said he, “I was born near Cameron’s Reach
And dreamed I would be a great sailor.
I dreamed of the gold and not of the leech
And I’d never heard of Jamaica.
“For glory and God, I went to the sea
But not just the way that I planned it.
We wouldn’t be made to pray like the King
But worship as our Lord commanded.
“For the covenant’s sake, my father was killed
And tellin’ old Charlie to bugger.
They cut off his hand for signing his name.
And left him to hang in the snugger.
“My Maggie was bright as ever you’ve seen
And she didn’t come to Jamaica.
Don’t know about God for where has he been
They came in the night for to rape her.
“The luckier ones, they drove us away
The luckiest ones: yet to take ‘em.
They cut off my ears at Newhaven Quay
And sent me to die in Jamaica.
“They put me to work a cuttin’ the cane
And boiling the guts of it later,
Then working the blacks that everyday came.
I showed ‘em who’s boss in Jamaica.
“Though seventeen years of driving them took
My hair and my patience and smile, then
A change of my age, a change of my luck
Not much you can’t stand for a while. Then,
“I got me a girl, my ebony peach.
I got me a farm in Jamaica.
Thick with my farmhands from mountain to beach,
I cut off their ears for escaping.”
I studied at Brown. It’s there that I teach
And follow the word of the Savior.
An eloquent man with elegant speech,
But I never talk of Jamaica.
