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Saturday Morning Reflections

My stomach is growling from the coconut trash bubbling in my system, my stomach is growling from toxic energy circulating in the street. My stomach is growling from words people are shouting in the town; it really makes my spirit groans. 

 My stomach is growling from the sleepless night rolling back and forth on the dirty torn up mattress spread out on the bare dry ground; sometimes it makes my emotions frown and if I am lucky to catch three hours sleep, I have to give thanks as I have to be racing against the clock to catch the miracle on the dot before the internet invasion begins. 

I have not had a decent breakfast since I entered the town; I have not had a descent lunch for the duration of my term, for four long years I have been suffering here, for four long years I have been wrestling in despair.  

My daily diet of cherry, guava and water kept me alive for almost two years and in my third and fourth years, tin Mackerel, rice and flour come in handy and bulla cake and bag juice was added to my diet to catch-up my stomach. They weren’t regular but I had it here and there. The brawling woman next-door, just across from the big Iron Gate, was part of the gossip crew the tree is a testament for all the bad news. I kept working from early morning to late night to maintain my focus, and to stay alive. 

My stomach is growling from the stench in the town, my stomach is growling from the garbage all around. I tried to clean up the street but each time they dump garbage on the side of the house, filtering the stench all around. There are days when I feel like throwing in the towel but I have to take the situation with a smile and pretend that  nothing is happening. 

I have lived a celibate life, one that is cold and empty as ice, sometimes my heart is on fire, my body gets hot and dignity is all that I have got. Perspiration trickles down my face and soaked the earth and the only solace I could find was the shadow smiling in the moon. 

We have stood up to the test when mankind will journey back in time, they will cross boarders disrupt the order and invade the system. Early in 2019 when I came here, rock stone was pelted at me from everywhere, the man from across the street with his stomach big and evil eyes, sets out on a stoning mission to kill me. I did not dodge them, I stood up to them and the supranational power from above conquered them. "I am going to kill you",he said

They broke three laptops, three smart phones and an ipad just to make me feel sad, I have got hit in my face, punched in my heart and beaten, in my head, it’s a miracle that I am not  dead. 

The defining moment was on April 10, 2021 at five am when I was working with my laptop at the back of the NCB (a bank) situated in the middle of the town was the burial ground but destiny turned my life around. I got several blows to the head and a fatal blow in my face that should have had me drop dead, my body was bruised and my right eye was injured, and that was my last day worked in the street. 

I started working from this property and the church and the school became an obstacle, the word in the town start float around that the “soup “ say him not going to kill me but him a go make me suffer, and another one said,  “she not going anywhere  we are going to make money off  her and her  family.”  

The harassment heighten the attacked increased and it was worse that working on the street, the stones kept pounding in the yard, on the roof top and late at nights but I kept my focus. 

 I was beaten up on the property, drag out and thrown on the concrete and my clothes was ripped off me, I was thrown down on concrete steps, and suffered bodily injury and a broken finger that took more than a year to heal and the woman from the church came out of the toilet one day  and throw tissue paper into my face .It’s a miracle why I am still alive.  

My stomach is growling and my heart is beating, all of a sudden, my space has become the hunting ground for the crucifix to march around the town.  

They have invaded my space with their computer propaganda, their lips are on fire to create a disaster, but a miracle was waiting in the wing to expose them of their sins and so the word went around that they were not welcome any longer in the town and destiny invited all of them to a special “dinner party.” Heaven knows what transpired next. 

My stomach is growling, let the party begin.

Copyright © Christine Phillips | Year Posted 2023

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