YOUNG WIDOW, GRAVE
A wreath of mourners ring
the grave. It gapes.
The people sing.
The service isn't meaning anything.
Mervyn Morris is the author of eight poetry collections, including Peelin Orange (2017) and Last Reel (2024); and three books of criticism and biography, ‘Is English We Speaking’ and Other Essays (1999), Making West Indian Literature (2005) and Miss Lou: Louise Bennett and Jamaican Culture (2014). He retired from The University of the West Indies in 2002 as Professor of Creative Writing and West Indian Literature. He received the Jamaican Order of Merit in 2009 and a Gold Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica in 2018. He was the 2014–2017 Poet Laureate of Jamaica.