Wasps Lyrics

My Jamaican trees

Standing proud and tall

Climb them don't fall

Walking down the street

Primary school in Pembroke Hall

I don't need to climb those trees at all

But you see those ripe delicious mangoes

They have to fall

Good times in Jamaica

Special times that I spent

I remember walking home

Getting in trouble with my friends

Fruit trees with limbs

Growing over those fences

But if you look up real high

Those trees have pestilences

Those same mango trees

Wasp nests and pests

Those same mango trees

Red ants and wasp nests

Wasps have their nests

No invited guests

They're safe in those trees

So you would guess

Mangoes and wasp nests

For the shoot and run test

We'd do it for the sport

Get those mangoes of course

We thought it would be funny

Weren't starving, we weren't hungry

A game to give us joy

So tempting as a boy

See them mango tree

Lit up like Christmas tree

Yellow, red, and green

Me a sweet mango thief

Around seventy-one

Kids having fun

Wasps fly faster

Than people run

Now wait, you may be laughing

But I ain't laughing


I remember those times

Around nineteen seventy-one

Innocent kids after school

Outside having fun

It was a hot Jamaican day

In the sun

When I learned wasps could fly faster

Than people can run

You better run, run, run, run, run

Fast runner?

You can't outrun a swarm

Wasps protect nests

Seek revenge and do harm

Mangoes fall, you eat

If the nest falls, you run

Wasps fly fast

Like water from my water-gun

Home owners weren't home

We used slingshots, stones

Pebbles, marbles, sticks and rocks

Red mangoes and wasp nests drop

See them mango tree

Lit up like Christmas tree

Yellow, red, and green

Me a sweet mango thief

Around seventy-one

Kids having fun

Wasps fly faster

Than people run

Jamaican wasps vengeful

Didn't throw from a safe distance

I knocked down that nest

Wasps sought out vengeance

Stung my face, eyes

Shoulders, ankles, arm

Child running blind

Ring the alarm, wasps swarm

Help me home, I need healing

Can't stand that sting feeling

Running, screaming, bleeding

Blinding, painful, crying

Screaming, yelling


Burning and swelling

My whole body feels infected

Nature teaching me a lesson

Those wasps were innocent

I was the felon



Just a seven, eight year old kid

Should a run, should a hid

All my other friends did

But now I'm sitting here


With wasp stings

See them mango tree

Lit up like Christmas tree

Yellow, red, and green

Me a sweet mango thief