My Jamaican trees
Standing proud and tall
Climb them don’t fall
Walking down the street
Primary school in Pembroke Hall
I don’t need to climb those trees at all
But you see those ripe delicious mangoes
They have to fall
Good times in Jamaica
Special times that I spent
I remember walking home
Getting in trouble with my friends
Fruit trees with limbs
Growing over those fences
But if you look up real high
Those trees have pestilences
Those same mango trees
Wasp nests and pests
Those same mango trees
Red ants and wasp nests
Wasps have their nests
No invited guests
They’re safe in those trees
So you would guess
Mangoes and wasp nests
For the shoot and run test
We’d do it for the sport
Get those mangoes of course
We thought it would be funny
Weren’t starving, we weren’t hungry
A game to give us joy
So tempting as a boy
See dem mango tree
Lit up like Christmas tree
Yellow, red, and green
Mi a sweet mango tief
Around seventy-one
Kids having fun
Wasps fly faster
Than people run
Now wait you may be laughing
But I ain’t laughing
I remember those times
Around nineteen seventy-one
Innocent kids after school
Outside having fun
It was a hot Jamaican day
In the sun
When I learned
Wasps could fly faster
Than people can run
You better run, run, run, run, run
You better run
You better run run now
You better run
The wasps dem a come
You better run
Better run run now
You better run
The wasps dem a come
Fast runner
You can’t out run a swarm
Wasps protect nests
Seek revenge and do harm
Mangoes fall, you eat
If the nest falls, you run
Wasps fly fast
Like water from my water gun
Home owners weren’t home
We used slingshots, stones
Pebbles, marbles, sticks and rocks
Red mangoes and wasp nests gonna drop
You better run
You better run run now
You better run
The wasps dem a come
You better run
You better run run now
You better run
The wasps dem a come
See dem mango tree
Lit up like Christmas tree
Yellow, red, and green
Mi a sweet mango tief
Around seventy-one
Kids having fun
Wasps fly faster
Than people run
Jamaican wasps vengeful
Didn’t throw from a safe distance
I knocked down that nest
Wasps sought out vengeance
Stung my face, eyes
Shoulders, ankles, arm
Child running blind
Ring the alarm, wasps swarm
Help me home, I need healing
Can’t stand that sting feeling
Running, screaming, bleeding
Blinding, painful, crying
Screaming, yelling
Burning and swelling
My whole body feels infected
Nature teaching me a lesson
Those wasps were innocent
I was the felon
just a seven, eight year old kid
Should a run, should a hid
All my other friends did
But now I’m sitting here
With wasp stings
You better run
You better run run now
You better run
The wasps dem a come
You better run
You better run run now
You better run
The wasps dem a come
See dem mango tree
Lit up like Christmas tree
Yellow, red, and green
Mi a sweet mango tief