MY LORD, the year just start and you could imagine dat we in April a’ready?
Ya could talk wha’ ya like, I have tuh agree wid the old folk when duh say dat these are really the last days in trute.
Evahthing dat I heard about these last days from the time I was coming along, I could see happening today. Duh say in the last days, the days gine be shortened; we ain’t seeing dat now? The days flying and gine ’long like wild fire.
Look at the babies dat borning nowadays. Well first of all, duh doan keep ya in the hospital nuh longer than two or so days. The next thing is dat ya very seldom see anybody walking ’bout wid a baby lying down in duh hands. Duh got the babies pelt ovah duh shoulder from day one. Just let a couple o’ months past and ya gine see dat same baby wid a mout’full o’ teet eating and drinking all sort o’ things and trying tuh do the same things duh see the other children doing.
Duh say dat in the last days children gine have children and duh ain’t wrong. Wherevah ya look nowadays ya could see a li’l boney girl in a tight, tight dress wid a big able belly sticking out in front o’ she. She li’l body ain’t develop yet, she cahn look after sheself or doan know yet how tuh look after sheself and as some people would say, ain’t even lose she mother features yet, but she now looking tuh become a mother.
Then, another one I used tuh always hear is dat there will be pestilence. I take pestilence tuh mean diseases and pests, something like the invasion o’ the giant African snails. Another one is the disease dat hit we pawpaw trees and up tuh now duh cahn find out what it is, so dat evahtime ya see a tree laden down wid the loveliest of pawpaws and think dat the disease ain’t touch dat tree, in a couple o’ weeks before all o’ dem lovely pawpaws could even get fully big, the leaves at the top o’ the tree does start tuh turn yellow and before the cat could lick he ear twice, the entire tree does be drying up wid all the pawpaws on pon it.
Now dat ain’t even got nothing tuh do wid all the other pests dat ya nevah used tuh hear ’bout when ya did growing up and going in the ground, pulling up a couple carrots, washing dem off and eating dem just so. Oh no! ya cahn do dah sorta thing so now – tummuch rats, mice, the very African snails and spray.
Another one is that there will be wars and rumours of wars. Evah day ya hearing ’bout a new war dat brek out somewhere in the world and a whole lot o’ people get or getting kill off. Not even the soldiers dat fighting, but poor, innocent civilians.
Yet another is that men will be lovers of themselves rather than lovers of God. I ain’t even gotta go intuh dat because people ain’t got nuh more shame when it come tuh same-sex relationships. Duh fighting fuh the same rights as a woman and a man. Overseas, duh adopting children and the agencies who would sometimes give even sound married couples a hard time tuh adopt a child does allow some gay couples to adopt.
Dem is only a few o’ the things dat I used tuh hear my mother talk ’bout and I am now living tuh see a lot o’ come tuh pass.
Something dat I cahn put anything tuh is the Sargassum moss. That thing is really something else, though. It is like ya fighting a losing battle wid it. You could imagine dat ya clean the beach one day and by the time ya get up the next day the beach got on just as much as the day before or more? I doan know how we gine get rid of it ’cause it ain’t look like it going anywhere in a hurry.
Look, some o’ all kinds things dat ya never see happen before happening now. I tell ya; it is scary.
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.
