Saint Lucia
(An Epic)
III
Perceptions of a New Nation’s Identity
450 years of being colonized
Only sovereign 39 years
Who is Saint Lucia?
Gruff unsmiling locals
Are they unhappy, resentful?
Left over from imperialist exploitation?
Half-Indigenous, half British
But servant class-servant race
Imposed
Private, very private affection shielded from tourists
Gruff, but with breaks of personality, of endearment
Moderate beginning growing familiarity with the Island and the Resort’s locals
After dinner the band played everybody danced smiled
Tourists staff and housekeeping smiles
The resort power outage and on again and off and on during a rainstorm
I asked everybody all day where Nick the Rasta Man was
Nick came up to us at lunch
I asked Nick the Rasta Man to make me two bracelets in the same pattern as the chokers I bought
Later, bringing them, Nick sat at our table and talked with us for a while
All grows on me as the Island-a wild Island-begins to grow on me
Where will Saint Lucia be in 10 years?
David Fekete 