“You from Trinidad! But you not half-caste!”
“I’m sorry?”
Walking out of Brixton tube station and into the rain, my forlorn pink umbrella, long conquered by the wind, hanging uselessly by my side.
“Excuse me miss!”
The voice, polite and distinctly not English, cut through the insistent chorus of skunkweedtravelcardsgetyourhighgrade.
I paused. An older man, in his 60s, and dressed in the fashion of the dapper older man, smiled at me, umbrella extended in greeting. “No sense in getting the locs wet. Come, I walk you to the bus stop.”
“You are very kind,” I said, awkwardly, guiltily thrusting one hand into my pocket to check that my wallet was still there.
“You from Trinidad! But you not half-caste!”
“I’m sorry?” I said, deafened by the wind and the rain and Brixtonian confusion.
“You not half-caste – you know, dougla, mixed!”
“Oh! Oh, yes, haha!”
There was my bus, there was I stammering out the usual explanation, taken aback by the phrase, wondering at the implications.
“Thank you, that was very kind.”
I ran.
Half-Caste by John Agard
Excuse me
standing on one leg
I’m half-casteExplain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean when picasso
mix red an green
is a half-caste canvas/
explain yuself
wha u mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean when light an shadow
mix in de sky
is a half-caste weather/
well in dat case
england weather
nearly always half-caste
in fact some o dem cloud
half-caste till dem overcast
so spiteful dem dont want de sun pass
ah rass/
explain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean tchaikovsky
sit down at dah piano
an mix a black key
wid a white key
is a half-caste symphony/Explain yuself
wha yu mean
Ah listening to yu wid de keen
half of mih ear
Ah looking at u wid de keen
half of mih eye
and when I’m introduced to yu
I’m sure you’ll understand
why I offer yu half-a-hand
an when I sleep at night
I close half-a-eye
consequently when I dream
I dream half-a-dream
an when moon begin to glow
I half-caste human being
cast half-a-shadow
but yu come back tomorrow
wid de whole of yu eye
an de whole of yu ear
and de whole of yu mindan I will tell yu
de other half
of my story
