Great-Grannie Mammie’s Sunday Food

Coocoo and peppery callaloo
was meh great grannie’s Sunday meal,
de food fuh she body and she spirit too;

and though de rest of us eat chicken stew,
we still have appetite fuh Mammie’s real
coocoo and peppery callaloo.

Wen she reach fuh de pot we knew
de nex ting she go need was some cornmeal
to mek de food fuh she body and she spirit too.

Sundays she was a changed woman; she drew
a-lotah strent cookin wid a ritual zeal
she coocoo and peppery callaloo,

an wid each mouthful she eat she grew
in wisdom to cope wid any ordeal.
Dis food fuh she body an she spirit too

did mek she remember Afrika, and renew
she identity; it did mek everytin real.
Coocoo and peppery callaloo
was de food fuh she body an she spirit too.