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Stanley Greaves
146# CARIBBEAN HISTORY
A flower falls on a leaf,
the forest sleeps, and
waves are on holiday.
El Dorado sings of love
as Columbus listens
in a plastic boat.
Guacanagari flies to New York,
– Nobody needs the Sargasso.
Juliet watches soap operas,
and wonders where
real heroes are gone.
Magdalene stops by a store
named, “Apostles’ Feet”.
– What are winged sandals for?
Exploring city slums
in a purple limousine
Cleopatra examines
all painted doors.
Other VIPs visit
St. Elsewhere-in-the-Sun
for rum and water skis.
There is no oracle,
only fraudulent cinemas.
Elections come –
now and then,
like bowls of free soup.
Old Moses says.
– Democracy works!
Citizens of some lands
stare in one-eyed belief.
But rum-jumbies
dance with people, and
– who don’t see don’t care.
1995
147# THE REVO’
Over wasted minds in bloody animus
are born prayers, flags and guns.
Blessed bombs and dark cries
create sudden flowers of dust
in landscape stark as hairless egg.
Any rag on stick is “The Peoples’ Flag”.
Shouted words, feet and street
echo humanity’s recurring loss.
Snatch rock, shoes, and run,
Run! for the revolution.
1997.
148# MONTSERRAT
There was no blue
in the sky,
only a curious yellow,
more of earth
than anything else.
Like politician’s speech,
that venting of ash/gases
smothers living and lifeless,
located root and pin.
A landscape of hope
once filled with imaginings
is no more. Everywhere
ash becomes ubiquitous shroud.
No house, no footprint
no child’s cry of delight,
no rustle , no buzz.
Time out.
1997.
149# ROOM
The floor was painted
with pepper sauce,
walls covered with soup.
Doors were biscuits
all cracked and flaked
and windows were
sliced pumpkin loops.
The room was illumined
by bunches of mangoes
and bright banana fingers.
All the guests sat quiet
at tables of smoked meat,
with knobbed bones for legs.
The chairs were clean roots
of cassava and yams and
everything looked so neat.
But the worrying thing
in everyone’s mind was
what were they going to eat.
1998.
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Taken from the book
Horizons
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ISBN: 9781900715577
Price: £9.99
Pages: 152
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