Our Tradition
My sister clasps her hands under her pregnant belly as we sit on the front steps of her home,
watching life unfold on the hot street. Sun highlights her face, belly, and hands. She speaks
of the midwife who will bring my first nephew out of her womb.
The street smells of Jamaican curry chicken, fresh thyme, Haitian red beans and white rice. Steel
drums are heard from a speaker next door, car horns and sirens, babies fuss and cry from the heat.
My sister sits holding a comb. I take it and sit behind her on the front steps. I section her hair
into compartments. Her soft hair is braided into corn rows like all women in our family before
giving birth.
watching life unfold on the hot street. Sun highlights her face, belly, and hands. She speaks
of the midwife who will bring my first nephew out of her womb.
The street smells of Jamaican curry chicken, fresh thyme, Haitian red beans and white rice. Steel
drums are heard from a speaker next door, car horns and sirens, babies fuss and cry from the heat.
My sister sits holding a comb. I take it and sit behind her on the front steps. I section her hair
into compartments. Her soft hair is braided into corn rows like all women in our family before
giving birth.
Jerrice J. Baptiste is a poet and author of eight books. She was the recipient of a residency for The Women's Leadership Program at The Omega Institute, NY, 2019. She has been published in The Yale Review; Kosmos Journal; The Caribbean Writer; Breathe Free Press; Spadina Literary Review; The Lake Poetry Journal; The Tulane Review; Autism Parenting Magazine; So Spoke the Earth: Anthology of Women Writers of Haitian Descent and many others. She also facilitates creative writing workshops. Her poems and collaborative songwriting are included in the Grammy award winning album Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti. Baptiste is the host of Women of Note on WKZE, 98.1 FM in Red Hook, NY, where enjoys playing jazz and world music for her international audience.
Art: Johanna Falk / Reshot