Undressing the River
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Slow, salt-fired Abandon the beach— that oppositional miracle of hot, black sand, the volcano's sputum of sparkling shit— to the cruise ship. Pick your way. Rewind music to its source. What the trees drop Mountain kaiso: mango, copra, banana dung Your feet could stagger through and get caught? Be stuck here forever: Two nodes on the island's primordial web. Spot her? The cow (tamarind brown). Horns! She spots you. Grow very still. It is said: Columbus' men from their vantage lost at sea took one look and declared Waitukubuli, "a crumpled heap of paper," clutch a sheaf of land, squish it into one's fist then toss it on a sea- faring table. Et voilá: the impasse: "Dominica." Leave the riverbank to her: the logos of what trembles underfoot. not the gutted estates, not the airport tarmac stocked for export, not the wait for IMF and EU subsidies [End Page 1010] Step back into the river. Back onto the rocks—some jagged as the day the volcano dropped 'em And walk
Nehassaiu de Gannes is an assistant professor of theater, performance, and society at Rhode Island State College, as well as a faculty member of Goddard College's IMA Program. In 2006, her "Door of No Return," a performance piece, was produced by Brown University's Rites and Reason Theatre. She lives in Harlem.
