Marlon James - A Brief History of Seven Killings

We going the same place, Weeper say

Demus not saying nothing

I don’t like Demus

He look at you too long

Like he writing something about you in him head

Coming up Hope Road we see the manager turn in

We stop.

We see and wait.

Echo Squad not standing guard

Echo Squad is PNP

Echo Squad know only one P:

Pay me

Dark come on sudden like it do when you not looking

Sky red then redder

Orange, then oranger

Black, then blacker

I want another hit

I want another hit

I want another hit

It’s because of you

You stand between me and it

And now we coming for you

And we screech through the gate

Fi we car first ride right up to the door.

Second car block the gate

Four man jump out of the car

Like Starsky and Hutch

On the one, on the four

Weeper head for the front door

The master’s door, the estate

This must be a place white man whip slave to death

Kill kill kill

You ’round the back, in the kitchen up the steps

Vibes and weed, we follow your trail but

Josey beat me to the bang

He driving the car yet still jump out first and with purpose

Your wife she ran out I didn’t care

She and some pickney I didn’t care

My bullet buck her in head

She fly clear off the ground

And land flat

I move over to finish the bitch

But she flat and blood a rush out her head

I run fast to get you, to see you, to put you down but

But Josey beat me to the bang

Bam bam, wife dead

And your brethren

And your sistren

And anybody that play guitar

I hear the bam bam bam bam on the ground

And reach up and push my feet

Echo in my head, bam bam

Blood rushing beat bam bam

Bomboclaat fuckery, I wanted to shoot you first

Nobody goin’ forget the man that shoot you

’Round the back won’t stand still even when I stop running.

I run up to the kitchen and cock the hammer

Them going write song ’bout me!

Riddim beating in my head

Beating louder

My father singing

One two three four

Colón man ah come

With him brass chain ah lick him belly

Bam bam bam

But Josey run in first

Josey bombocloth Josey

He run in on you and lift the M16

But the manager run in, right into you

Right into the way

I moving fast but everything slow

I jump on the last step but the sound stretch and the

Faster I lift the gun the slower it feel

I push my head in and see you, before I see Josey

You don’t know you stand between me and it

Short stumpy manager run right into it

Chatting shit, monkey business

Bam bam bam bam bam

From Josey gun

Josey riddle him thigh, shower him back

He scream and I scream and all you say is

Selassie I Jah Rastafari

And all fall down

Bang a pot, blam a can, wake up dust and burst through

The window

Pow

Josey don’t aim for the head

Like the Cuban tell we

Aim for the head

Make it blast open like a blender

You look straight at me

You drop your grapefruit

You look at me

And I want you to shout and scream and sniff and tear

Piss you pants, jerk and fall

But you just look, you didn’t blink

And I and I

BamBam

Jah Rastafari shot you in the heart

You call out Selassie

You get him? I say to Josey

Yeah

Me get the wife too

Go ’round the front

Straight through the head with one shot

Bitch fly and crash on the ground

’Bout she was going make a clean getaway

Who the bitch think she be, Jill, Kelly or Sabrina

Don’t call the man’s queen, bitch

So you get him?

You get him?

You get him?

Yeah

We run to the front

Brothers was Swiss cheesing the house

Demus run through the front door

Past a girl hiding behind it

And empty a clip that hit the organ

Make a do re fa me so

People inside shuffle and scream

A girl scream out for Seeco

People inside quiet like a mouse

You drop your grapefruit and look straight at me

Like Jesus telling Judas

To get it done already

Me is you, Pilate me is you, Roman soldier

You don’t even know who your Judas was

Demus goin’ be mad that the Judas wasn’t here too

Think he did want him more than he want you

You just happen to be in the way

A brawta, and extra, extra sauce for the dish

Heckle run past Demus down the hallway

And make him gun rip a man in half

Cut a line ’cross the belly

Each shot a blood burst

We shower the place again

And just like so I want to

Make sure you dead

Is me should a make you dead

Me hate bombocloth Josey Wales

Me want to go back ’round the kitchen

And if you dead

Make you deader

Coming to the front Funky Chicken nearly shoot me

You get the wife?

Yeah me get the wife

She did a run to the

Volkswagen

Another man on the floor

The house quiet and shake

Whoop-whoop, sound of the police

Babylon beast

We run

But then me take a stop

As we running out a girl walking in

Angel don’t know she stepping into hell

Brown skin and pretty and look like

She don’t ’fraid to walk

In her sexy jeans and pretty blouse

She come for him me know it

Brown skin and pretty hair

And I did want to fuck fuck fuck

She see we and just stand there

Don’t run don’t back ’way, she just stand there

Maybe she crying or her eye just red

She don’t move

Siren getting nearer and me raise me gun

She must be one of them, me raise me gun

But Josey get to her first.

Josey walk right up to her, right up to her face

Right up to her face and sniff

He sniff and she jump and start weep

That quiet crying that big woman do

Me want her to piss herself

Me want to do it to her but Josey again

He get in me way again I going shoot him

Josey get inna the bomboclaat car!

The first car gone already

Demus Weeper Josey Heckle me

Weeper press the gas

The woman still standing there like she is Lot wife

That look back

Salt

Three gunshot and the back our window explode

And I want to kill kill kill

And fuck fuck fuck

But I scream scream scream

We dip over and swerve in the left

Into car oncoming

We dead now

Car screech and honk

Police coming in hot

Whooop-whoop

Babylon bussing a bang

Cars swerve out of the way, one crash then two

Down Hope Road other cars hear we coming

Police on the backside rushing we down

Move out ah the bloodcloth way

Bam! Make a right on East Kings House Road

Run red light

Screech screech tire soon bust

Whoop whoop

Fucking police

Bloodclaat Babylon

My head getting bigger and heart pumping

Boom boom boom

And you looking at me

Look up and a car coming straight for my head

Stop scream like a pussyhole, pussyhole!

Weeper say and slam the brake

My head clap the dash

He twist the wheel and slam the gas and, and, and

A nd the Datsun dash down another road that I don’t know and then another road then left down another road a boy jump out of the way but we still hear a bump nobody talking but everybody screaming Weeper say shut up, pussyhole, shut up, pussyhole, we turn again turn turn and dash down a lane so narrow that we scrape house on both side sparks burst off and somebody scream inside outside of the car don’t know then we drop into one pothole two three the car just bouncing up and down and then we skid a right past a bar playing HIS song a bar with a Pepsi sign and a sign with the old man from Schweppes Heckle say fling ’way di gun throw ’way di gun and so he fling ’way him gun Weeper say you is a bombocloth fool but keep driving and we turn right the road small no streetlight headlight dog we hit a dog then left then right and nobody know where we is I know I don’t know I can feel me head coming down already I not going get a hit now this coming down getting sadder and sadder vomit coming up my mouth send it back down we turn down one empty lane and another lane and end up on a wide road that cut a valley between the Garbagelands before I see that the police not following we anymore right now me is a boy and me want me woman the woman me leave this morning knowing that me might not come back but not thinking it I want me woman but nobody in the car making a sound until Heckle say dog going nyam we supper we going roast in hellfire them goin’ fuck we up them going put we under heavy manners they going eradicate we he start to cry and Weeper stop the car and come out and what the bloodcloth you a do Josey say but Weeper pull out him revolver and pull open the back door on the left get out of the bloodcloth car, you batty boy he say to Heckle but Heckle say him nah go nowhere Weeper fire a gunshot in the air me thinking Jesus Christ people surely goin’ come now but Weeper put the gun right near Heckle head and say to me Brethren, you betta shift ’cause brains going splash over you and Heckle start bawl me coming out me coming out me gone he climb out of the car and Weeper grab the M16 from him and throw it on a garbage hill and point his gun and say you better run ’cause me no business with you and as the boy turn Weeper kick him in the bottom he stagger get up and run and Weeper get back in the car anybody who want to join him better come out of the fucking car now nobody want to come out I just want to go somewhere a cave ’round the beach or some hole I want just want one more line I just want one more line one more line before me dead just then I reason that they will kill me because they must and I goin’ be one of the man who kill HIM which is like the man who kill Jesus I wish me woman could sing to me I wish me did dead from ghetto sickness from polio or scurvy or dropsy or whatever poor people die from Weeper start the car and we drive through the Garbagelands who have the time how long we going keep driving if we never stop why we can’t reach Copenhagen City and in the gully outside Trench Town Weeper stop get out of the car and run he just run leaving three of we he just up and run and disappear in the bush like it swallow him up I wait for it to burp and Josey Wales in the front seat look at Bam-Bam and Bam-Bam run and disappear in the west and Josey Wales look at me and say fucking fool it was almost you, it was you until you sniff Weeper shit and I say what the bombocloth you talking ’bout but he run off east into the bush that swallow him up I think to wait for another burp thinking of a burp make me want to laugh but there is nothing to laugh about not this time so I start to cry nobody watching or at least I can’t see nobody watching me I want to cry louder I want my woman I want a line ’cause I hate coming down I hate it I hate it worse than I hate thinking of them shooting me and is not even a month but me start sniffling turning into madman on the street with the cocaine hunger I going mad me brain must be gone somewhere that it never coming back but nothing coming back now not a single thing something brush the bush at the top of the gully and the bush burst with light like hair on fire like burning bush in Exodus the light mean a car coming this way to use the gully as a shortcut it’s the police I know it’s the police I feel it’s the police run run run trip over a stone smack knee hiss bombocloth get up try to run but left leg only limp like the killer in Dirty Harry now Harry after me no no no right there is a clump of weed so high it hide me like a tiny chair can hide a big wabbit which way did the wabbit go which way did he go but I’m not the rabbit I’m Foghorn Leghorn and I’m a gonna hide I say I’m a gonna hide behind this here weed see that what I gonna do that’s a joke… I say, that’s a joke, son tee hee hee giggle giggle giggle the car pass by I can’t stop giggle they’re going to catch me tee hee hee and kill me tee hee hee I don’t know why I can’t stop laughing shut up mouth I clamp my mouth shut the car pass with a rattle and roll and splash in the nasty water running down the gully waking up the rats so many rats I want to scream and aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee nobody ’round to hear me aieeeeeeeee like a girl now me gun missing I can’t find it the rats took it they going tear me skin off and eat my toes and so much garbage in the gully: Brillo box, corn flakes box, FAB detergent, reconstituted flour enriched flour plastic bags dead rat trapped in plastic bags live rats coming out of milk boxes biscuit boxes running over soft drink bottles cooking oil bottles Palmolive dishwashing liquid I think it’s Palmolive you’re soaking in it so many bottles like rats and rats in bottle that can’t come out have to run have to run now forget the gun just forget it they’re coming to kill you I don’t want to die have to beg Jesus have to beg Papa-Lo have to beg Copenhagen City but is not Papa-Lo send we is Josey Wales but Josey Wales can’t do anything without Papa-Lo saying yes no maybe so right I trying to think in a straight line but line means white means coke I need a hit hit hit and I shot up HIM place and now it’s something that I don’t think of all the time but something that run in and out of my head like when I not wearing brief I know that Josey Wales was supposed to make a lot of money from this or he wouldn’t do it politics don’t mean nothing to a man like that everybody know and there was no police and no guard no guard at all which is like they know we was coming but Josey promise I would get at least one police to deal with and no guard at the gate we just run in but we could have walk I think all I kill was a piano I need to get back to Copenhagen City because this look like PNP area why Weeper leave we in a PNP area when we just kill PNP most famous sufferah and whoever find me going kill me till me dead I don’t know where this place lead and the road breaking up and the rats rats rats rats rats rats I run out and it must be late because this first street empty and I don’t know where I am this place two bars the sign say closed two sleeping dogs one creeping cat a burned-out car shell blocking the road a sign that say Rose Town Walk Ride Drive and Arrive Alive another one saying Slow: School both sign bursting with old bullet hole every hole I see I hear a blam or a bok or a pow like Harry Callahan did he fire six shots or only five and my gun gone and maybe I leave it in the garbage fields dunes fields dunes and in all the confusion to tell you the truth I forgot myself in all this excitement but being this is a.44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow you head clean off, you’ve gotta ask yourself a question do I feel lucky well, do ya punk and Harry blam blam blam hands stop shaking stop shaking please stop shaking nobody love me nobody care my head don’t think them ways it must be the coming down from the drugs why when you come down you just go down and down and downer and a high is nothing but a peak from which you just come down and down you fall and never stop and I going down lower lower soon sink into the road under the road into hell nobody going see me running through the night run faster make the world move slower but everything moving faster than me and road popping potholes and zinc fence blocking me from seeing the houses run run run right into people who I didn’t hear before I see quick behind this bush they playing dominoes somebody must did see me somebody must be behind me no they all under the streetlight four man at the table three man watching two woman the man at the head leaning back on the fence slamming down one domino then another then another they bang hard and the table shake the women scream and laugh and the radio love to love but my baby he loves to dance he wants to dance he loves to dance he’s got to dance but nobody around I hate them for ghetto people not supposed to be happy nobody should laugh everybody should be in misery me never laugh must be two time my entire life and saying my entire life make me feel like me old even though twenty birthday don’t come yet and all me have is me woman and she be a good woman and me running back to her but me not running back to her and I just want to get away just crawl with left knee then right then left right left right somebody water this hedge mud on me knee and in me fist God Hallelujah Jesus don’t make there be no dog but I crawling like a dog in somebody yard this must be a PNP area because every wall orange and them people too fucking happy I should have me gun them people don’t know what it really mean to kill Jesus fucking Christ rockstone in the mud ow ow ow ow bloodcloth oh shit the woman hear, the woman who not playing where me gun where me gun where me gun but then she laugh again and say stray dog over deh so and me crawl and crawl until me can’t hear no domino no more then me run run run until I run into the main road a car scream and I aieeee back and run across the road to the banking I don’t know how only God know how or maybe Satan know but now I’m on the railroad track the track push me and pull me and lead me back to the shack somebody sing take me back to the track jack but is the radio in my head taking me right back to whatever start all of this and will people think that is because of something political but it is political the white man don’t care ’bout no horse race I remember when the white man and the Cuban say know the difference between pointing a gun and shooting it and now me here on the racetrack but it too dark to know if it’s really a racetrack but one plank of wood follow another it must be so no train coming this time of night but one pass by early in the morning before cock crow maybe I should just lie down right here go to sleep on the tracks and wake up in hell no that’s not me talking it’s the comedown Jesus I hope Weeper is back at the shack with some lines but there is no shack just a railroad going everywhere this could be taking me back to country or even a PNP area but at least I smell the sea them probably take him to the hospital now a hospital that scorn Rasta but you’re there now in emergency with plenty of white doctor around you the nurse says he’s lost a lot of blood doctor and the doctor says I need blah blah blah for blah blah blah on the blah blah blah stat then grab two paddles says clear and jumpshock your chest the music come up not pretty music but music that make the back of my neck sweat the nurse look away first and the doctor say we’ve lost him everybody turn black if only my head would stop traveling and leave my feet to do it alone because they going nowhere but here the moon half but orange the sky black and red and bombopussyr’asscloth me ankle broken bottle rat and shit on the railtrack Daddy say that train toilet flush right out on the track and which worse, broken bottle or dry shit I don’t know there’s the shack I can roll out a towel and sleep please for this is not a house but is my house now closer closer who looking who watching who set trap closer closer now the door not supposed to open so easy I don’t know I say I don’t know need a line need a hit fucking pussyhole Weeper give me a hit the shack never look so small the window look out into nothing but black and inside getting darker and darker than black then I wake up drowning until I touch wood. I smell a raw man in here with me but can’t see nobody.