Too many guns in this place
Too many youths being displaced
Gem Barbados facing too much disgrace
Leaving in our mouths an awful taste.
How can we combat this trend?
How can we bring this scourge to an end?
Is there hope beyond the bend?
Is there anyone on whom we can depend?
Law enforcers are pulling out their hair
This is more than they can bear,
Citizens incensed with worry and fear
Are praying it will soon disappear.
Nightly and daily gunshots are loud
As villains accomplish what they avowed
Often scattering a liming crowd
Leaving that community under a cloud.
Another youth gone or sometimes two
Or an innocent bystander brought into view,
He or she was not the one intended
But nevertheless another life is ended.
Bullets are unable to differentiate
Between black and white or love and hate,
The trigger squeezed they no longer wait
But hasten on their way to eliminate.
A gun in the hand of a novice on the boil
Who is unaware of its kick back or recoil
Can do untold damage unless he is foiled
And spills blood on the street like leaking oil.
An ugly picture I suppose that paints
But think also of the Barbadian image it taints
Sending a stay-away signal to the world’s tourists
And puts our tourist industry at severe risk.
This horror on our doorstep, will it go away?
Can we do anything to keep it at bay?
Will this eventually be seen as the Bajan way?
Please assure me this is not here to stay.
Our Father in heaven today we pray
Do let this scourge of our country go away,
Bend our wills and make them yours
And please Lord, let this violence leave our shores.
Stewart Russell © September 2017
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