Don't Say Carribbean | Teen Ink

Don't Say Carribbean

April 23, 2015
By Andrew Westrich BRONZE, New York, New York
Andrew Westrich BRONZE, New York, New York
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

No one says Carribbean anymore.

There's no such thing as the Carribbean, no

soft, rich sand, no 

eighty degree perfect weather.

 

Don't say Carribbean. When the

word Carribbean drifts out of your mouth

I take off my mask of sadness. I prepare to relax. I'm 

stupid like that. Once,

 

I was not alone. The sky, blue. The sea, blue.

My sunglasses sat upon my face, soaking in the sun's

harmful rays.

 

You dare speak of the Carribbean? You unlock

a door full of evils, that word comes bursting

out. And now, the Carribbean has opened its curtain

 

and revealed its sadness and depression; it's a 

place where people disregard beauty and happiness

in the pursuit of profit. Who says Carribbean? Now

 

I grind my teeth. Or did you mean the Carribbean you

saw in that picture you have

of the beautiful sunset, shining over the island's resources

 

being ripped away. Carribbean, an awful word, 

a word that would even make bad fertilizer.


The author's comments:

For English class, we read Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place. Her novella inspired me to look beyond what a tourist sees when he or she travels to the Carribbean. Additionally, a poem called, "Don't Say Paris," inspired me to write this poem as well.


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