Duppy Run Me

You want to hear the truth?

Well duppy run me,

You don’t have to believe it

But I was chase by a duppy.

I could name the cemetery

So that you could go and see,

I know it for a fact

Because it happened to me.

I heard the fellows say

They actually saw it happen

But I didn’t fear the dead

So I did not feel threatened.

So I went with my fastness

To prove it for myself

And “faith” I telling the truth

I now have failing health.

I have not yet recovered

And still can’t believe my eyes,

Right in that cemetery

I almost met my demise.

It isn’t much to describe

It was like a shadow

But it was too close for comfort

So I knew I had go.

Yes duppy could run

And it faster than you or me,

That is why up to this day

I don’t know how I get free.

But let me tell you my friend

How I met this duppy,

I was passing by the gate

And I saw a light in the cemetery.

  

You know bajan malicious

So I had to investigate,

Of course it was past midnight

But I didn’t care how late.

When I got by the grave

I saw this shrouded shape,

I know it wasn’t human

It even wore a cape.

It emitted an eerie sound

Like nothing I ever heard,

I was out of there in a flash

Mark my very word.

It chased me to the gate

And out of the graveyard,

It chased me up the street

Boy I was running hard.

When I reached the church

It was still behind me,

I never looked back once

But I could sense the duppy.

All the way home it run me

Right up to my very door

And only when I got in

It didn’t chase anymore.

But peeping through the flaps

I heard it’s eerie sound

And when I heard its words

I just dropped to the ground.

“Stay out of the cemetery

In there is for the dead.”

Then that eerie sound again

And from my house it fled.

I don’t care what you feel

It was a “real-real” duppy,

I know that for a fact

Cause it actually happened to me.

Stewart Russell © November 2018

Not Sure Any More

I decided on the short cut

Since the alternate way was long,

I may look small

But believe you me I am strong.

I fear not a living soul

I can take care of myself

I may be on the other side of fifty

But I am still in good health.

You may wonder

Why I am telling you all this

But keep apace with me

And not a detail you will miss.

It was late going on to midnight

And I was on my way home,

My short cut was through the cemetery

I had never done this alone.

My friends and I had done it before

But we did it mainly for kicks

And they expected at these times

That I would be up to tricks.

But we would do that for fun

I wasn’t sacred of the dead,

I had always said to them

If I had to, I’d fear the living instead.

However the truth be told

I neither feared the living nor the dead

And that night in question

I knew only the dead lay up ahead.

I began to whistle a tune

As I unhurriedly walked along,

Right then a strange thing happened

Somebody was whistling the song.

At first I thought it was an echo

But that was not possible,

I decided it must be someone living

Since dead people can’t whistle.

  

Suddenly I picked up a scent

It was the scent of cigarette smoke,

Looking around I saw no one

And I decided this must be a joke.

I stopped whistling

And whoever it was stopped too,

Then someone chuckled and said,

“You really must like the view.”

Fear began to rise up in me

“Like the view?  What does he mean?”

His chuckle broke into great laughter

And then he screamed.

“Can’t you see the fire?

Can you not feel the flame?

How can you stand there gawking?

How can you do nothing about our pain?”

“Our pain?  What could he mean?

I couldn’t feel a thing”.

Suddenly there was that scream again

And then he began to sing.

He sang in plaintive tones

The same tune that I was whistling

But the words were different

From the words I use to sing.

In my ears they still ring,

“Do you remember me now I am dead?

If so sing along with me, please sing

Let me feel your love instead.

You’ll soon be joined with me

That’s the reason you are here,

Your trek through this cemetery

Is to help you for death prepare.

By then I had had enough

In a flash I shot out of there,

I don’t know if it was the living or the dead

But this I can tell you both now I fear.

Don’t ask me to explain

For your guess is as good as mine

But I know any other night in a cemetery

I would have to be dead at that time.

Not even in a group as I did before

Not if the group is big or small,

Not for a funeral that’s running late

Not another night for any reason at all.

Stewart Russell © May 2018