Category Archives: Short Stories

GUYANA: Short Stories: Red Brick Gravel Rash – By Geoff Burrowes

01/29/2023 – 12:20 am

By Geoff Burrowes

       Breakfast (which we didn’t have a name for) was the same as always – a bowl of plantain porridge topped by a swirl of fresh cow’s milk and washed down by a cup of cocoa, sweetened with brown sugar. Since we didn’t know any different we contentedly ate our porridge and drank our cocoa and pulled on our nearly white yachtins before going under the house  to play.

       At least I went under the house. Mary my younger sister trotted upstairs to play with her dolls! What a waste of perfectly good play time! I headed straight for my new bike. It was actually second hand, a gift from my parents for my 4th birthday. It was bright shining red. The frame was actually a little small for me but I could get up to speed on it really quickly and whip it around corners and thoroughly control it with minimum effort. I must admit that I sometimes showed off on my little red bike.        Continue reading →

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GUYANA: “Small days” and “Itaname” and other Guyanese folk song lyrics.

01/22/2023 – 6:23 am

Comments on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nfR6y3G4sM

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Itaname (Wan marnin’ de captin wake) Guyanese folk song lyrics.

Sanko Boy and other folk songs 

Comments on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQOh-fzozxI

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GUYANA: A dip in the Dark – Short Stories – By Geoff Burrowes

01/21/2023 – 9:56 am

  By Geoff Burrowes

When I was growing up I had an older friend named Tony. He was a lawyer at the old, well established firm of Cameron and Shepherd. He loved to gyaff (the Trinidadians call it  “old talk” and it was an art form widely practiced and refined throughout the West Indies and as Tony was an interesting gyaffer I enjoyed gyaffing with him after rowing in the dark fresh Georgetown evenings.

A gyaffer is generally a story teller, full of interesting , often humourous facts that his listener will often reply to, keeping the conversation going, often in a quite different and often more interesting direction. A good gyaff could often last for hours to the mutual satisfaction of all parties.              Continue reading →

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GUYANA: Short Stories: So Beautiful it Hurts – By Geoff Burrowes

01/05/2023 – 8:51 pm

So Beautiful it Hurts – By Geoff Burrowes

My big girl cousin Wendy was enthusiastic and daring. When she said breathlessly “Come and see this!” and took off up our kitchen stairs the rest of us followed quickly. The upstairs window, around which we all crowded faced West up Brickdam and we could see the broad grass verges lined with delicate and colourful flambouyant trees and Brickdam quickly filling up with costumed people.

We could just feel a disturbance in the warm, fragrant morning air. The disturbance soon turned into the sweet, haunting liquid notes of  steel drums playing “Mary’s Boy Child” a musical tribute to the Christ Child born in a manger in far away Bethlehem two thousand years before.            Continue reading →

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GUYANA: Martin Carter: POEMS OF AFFINITY – Guyana – 13 December 2022

12/09/2022 – 12:05 am
MC Poems of Affinity Flyer.png
Compliments of the season!

You are warmly invited to join us for an hour of poetry. We will feature Martin Carter’s Poems of Affinity in a recital on Zoom.

EVENT:           Poetry recital
TITLE:            Martin Carter’s Poems of Affinity
DATE:            Tuesday 13th December 2022
TIME:             5.00 PM Guyana
Continue reading →

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GUYANA: Short Stories: Scouting: Red Water Creek – Atkinson Field – By Geoff Burrowes

06/27/2022 – 12:06 am

By Geoff Burrowes

I’ve dredged up from the recesses of memory a story of my first camping trip that I hope you’ll find interesting:

Red Water Creek – Atkinson Field. Guyana

I woke up excited. This was the day! I was a member of Scout Troop 39 but had never been camping. Today that was going to change forever!

Once a year the Scout Association in British Guiana held a rally to which all Scouts were invited. It took the form of a large camp, with space reserved for every troop’s tent and cooking fire and latrine, as well as a meeting place in a central location for all the Scouts. This year it was being held at Redwater Creek a creek in the bush, about 35 miles South of Georgetown, our city and the capital of our country, BG which was abbreviated from British Guiana. For those who don’t know BG was a British colony on the North shoulder of South America, and still today, the only English speaking nation in South America.                Continue reading →

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Short Stories – Flights of Fancy – By Geoff and Cruz Burrowes

05/29/2022 – 12:03 am

 – By Geoff and Cruz Burrowes

Fancy Moore loved flying. Her father, Bill, was a big man, tall and with broad shoulders and a roughish twinkle in his eye  He was so big he almost had trouble fitting into his gleaming F35 fighter but he’d passed his love of soaring into the ‘wild blue yonder’ the white clouds, the deep blue sky to his daughter Fancy.

His old yellow Piper Cub plane, which normally slept in the old barn, at the edge of the farmer’s field behind their house, was meticulously serviced and Bill would take Fancy for flights as often as he could so she could savour the smell of old leather and oil and Avgas, could thrill to the roar of the old Continental engine as it pressed her back into her seat as her Dad accelerated down the worn strip of grass.      Continue reading →

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GUYANA: Short Stories: Words – By Geoff Burrowes

05/27/2022 – 12:06 am

Words – Geoff Burrowes

I love words! Words can weave magic, as in the case of geniuses like William Shakespeare or Winston Churchill, Ian Macdonald or Godfrey Chin but also, terribly, words in the hands of monsters like Hitler or Stalin can cause untold horror and destruction!

I remember, when I was young reading “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”, which was fascinating and later reading two books by the same author which were borderline fantasy. I can’t remember the names of either book but I remember the writing which was magical! It was like a puff of smoke which quickly dissipated in the breeze but the memory of which stayed with the reader. I’m sorry I can’t explain it better than that! True artistry!      Continue reading →

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BOOK: The MOVE: The Diary of a 12-year-old Girl from Brooklyn – ZOOM at 4:30 pm EST – Saturday, May 7th 2022.

05/06/2022 – 3:34 pm

The MOVE: The Diary of a 12-year-old Girl from Brooklyn

Published by KOMAKA TREE BOOKS). 82 pages

Purchase from: Amazon Paperback – Look Inside:  << Click

Lynette deals with big life changing events such as death, divorce, and changes itself! A lot of times adults believe they are shielding these difficulties from youth and children!. However, they see and hear these issues! A great lesson that we can learn from Lynette is that service helps to build up a network of support systems and can heal us. Focusing on and caring for others heals our inner troubles……Fern Havea

Conversations With the Author:

Let’s celebrate the accomplishment of a rising literary star — Ms. Lael Wills our 12-year-old author. Join us on ZOOM at 4:30 pm EST – Saturday, May 7th 2022. Bring children and families!

ZOOM LINK: https://mcmaster.zoom.us/j/92805573797

This event is hosted by Dr. Pauline Baird (of Wah Dih Story Seh and Komaka Tree Books and BOOK IT: A Literary Event).

Thanks for joining.

Pauline Baird (Ph.D.) 

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SHORT STORY: A PEACEFUL SPOT – By Geoff Burrowes

03/15/2022 – 5:33 pm

– By Geoff Burrowes

They rode down from the low hills toward a long fringe of trees, through which, there was a glimpse of sparkling water!

The savannah stretched away in the distance as far as the eye could see, interrupted only by the savannah islands, unexpected outcroppings, that were as large as mountains, forested on their slopes and breaking the monotony of the flat grasslands.      Continue reading →

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