Come On Baje

Come on Baje

Check your gauge

Think of your age

Let’s do better at this stage.

This is not ‘bout politics

Nor opportunistic tricks,

This is a national call

Goin’ out to DLP, BLP and all!

Check the colour o’ we skin

Check we teeth when we grin

Why all o’ this bad blood?

At no stage would this be good.

However you turn – a gun,

Young or old - prepare to run,

Shooting up the place like it’s fun

And at the end another life done,

Come on Baje

Check your gauge

Think of your age

Better is needed at this stage.

Clearly not ‘bout black and white

These shootings in the night,

Something else is involved

It’s time to have it resolved.

The guns like they getting’ bigger

More damage on pulling the trigger,

More blood flowing in the gutter

Where lies this country’s bread ‘n’ butter.

Shots ring out in the night

Families hit the floor in fright

Tell me how could this be right?

And the aftermath – what a sight!

Come on Baje

Check your gauge

Think of your age

We can do better at this stage.

Community against community

Destroying our national unity,

Tell me how could this be

In this our year of jubilee?

From whence come these blisters?

Are we not brothers and sisters?

So why these destructive twisters

And behavior like uncaring drifters?

Who put out guns for hire

Causing this frequent gunfire?

How did they arrive in this land

So that they can be had on every hand?

 

Come on Baje

Check your gauge

Think of your age

Time to do better at this stage.

Communities overcome by fear

Bullets flying through the air,

The discharger just couldn’t care,

Could this be happening here?

A family settles down to sleep

Next they hear cries in the street,

Right in the early morning

Ambulance and police sirens blaring!

Reason-another shoot-out

Another gang warfare bout,

The bigger the guns the greater the clout

The more the weapons the more they spout.

Come on Baje

Check your gauge

Think of your age

Be desperate for better at this stage!

A moonlight night on the patio

Interrupted by a gun bearing honcho

Followed by others carrying arms

Clearly intent on doing harm.

This is their occupation

Their money making vocation

Without the slightest realization

That this is a national violation.

If the occupants are lucky

They will lose just their money

But often it’s worse

If the violators demand more than a purse.

 

Come on Baje

Check your gauge

Think of your age

It’s imperative we do better at this stage.

  

It is definitely the limit

A life cut short by a stray bullet,

This rather unnerving habit -

Is there nothing we can do to stop it?

The police are trying their best

Just like the sheriffs of the old Wild West

But these guns are a real test

Creating a constant mess.

Some say it’s drugs related

Maybe gangs others have stated,

Our nation will be less highly rated

Unless this scourge is eradicated.

Come on Baje

Check your gauge

Think of your age

We must do better at this stage.

Even the church seem to be lost

Guns and crime – the real boss,

Don’t panic - the uncertain cry

But it is real bad; that none can deny.

What is there to be done

To stop this takeover by the gun?

Let me tell you this is no fun

Soon all Barbados will be on the run.

Despite all that’s going on

For some the truth has not yet dawned,

Safe and secure they still feel

Behind their concrete walls and steel.

Come on Baje

Check your gauge

Think of your age

Get up and do better at this stage!

Fifty years and counting

Yes this is worthy of celebrating

As a nation on the world stage

But this gun thing is a distraction Baje.

For even when we celebrate

Our celebration ends in an awful state

As the gun claims another and injures a few

And by now you are asking so what’s new.

Many still brave the situation

And will attend the occasion

But in the air you can feel the tension

And the fear of the next gun violation.

 

Come on Baje

Check your gauge

Think of your age

No guns would be better at this stage

Black against black: why should this be

Seeing we are of the same family?

Why not strive for unity

As our nation celebrates its first fifty?

Use not the gun to settle a dispute

Killing another is not a worthwhile fruit,

If there is an occasion for a gun to shoot

Let it be the fiftieth anniversary gun salute.

Let’s rid our nation of this scourge

A better way of living forge

With passion and love and verve

Providing for our youth a meaningful learning curve.

Let our streets be free again

Be it day or night in the sun or rain

So we all can enjoy the resources of this land

Given to us by the Father’s right hand.

Come on Baje

Check your gauge

Think of your age

Now is as good a time to do better at this stage.

Stewart Russell © 2016