More than Cosmetics Please

 

 

I recall a song

That was sung by a popular group,

No doubt the singer

Must have been horribly spooked.

 

He sang of the experience

He had had after the ball

When the seemingly beautiful young wife

Made his countenance fall.

 

With eyes of marble,

And false teeth of gold,

She was no doubt a treasure

For eyes to behold!

 

Hair that was shoulder length

No doubt, not her own,

And a deceptive wooden leg

That later was gone.

 

Each was set in its place

That was before prepared for the item

And the removal of all these

Caused our singer a problem.

 

Her false teeth she placed in water

And she also removed her glass eye,

The wooden leg was propped against the door

And her hair was hung up to dry.

 

This was not the singer’s order

But it fits my poem quite right

Since to my way of seeing it,

Cosmetics were the order of the night.

 

 

And so, I switch to Barbados

As we celebrate another year

During this historic month of November

And to behold what do appear.

 

A whole lot of cosmetics

Being plastered on my bajan girl,

So many, she is almost indistinguishable

And it has my head in a whirl.

 

From Independence to Republic

So far, it’s just a name,

Almost an entire year has passed

And it’s pretty much the same.

 

No longer have we a Governor General:

A President is now in place

But her duties are still ceremonial,

With a simple change of face.

 

Some suggest it be executive

To give to her a little more weight,

Something more than just a figure head

To match our Republic State.

 

No more Independence Day

There is a new appellation,

Happy Barbados National Day to all

When we celebrate our Nation.

 

 

A change re the constabulary

To the Barbados Police Service,

And the renaming of Her Majesty Prison

Was also on the list.

 

Whatever was of the Crown

Is now regarded as the State,

But change must be more than cosmetic

 And this at a reasonable rate.

 

The constitution must follow suit

Having not been done before,

And the cart-before-the-horse behavior

Must go out the colonial door.

 

To let go we must let go

And not only of the colonial ties

But all those who feel we are up for grabs

We must dare to defy.

 

No genuflecting before the UN

Or any other global organization,

Friends of all we can most certainly be

But selling out to any, we must shun.

 

  

And while we dress up for festivals

We must do so in modesty

And when we go back to our work place,

It must be pride in our industry.

 

Away with the superficial;

The cosmetic is only skin deep,

Name changes and nothing more, my friends,

Speak only to being cheap.

 

Leaders, you are elected to serve,

Not strut around looking swell,

And the talk you so expertly put down

Is not serving this country well.

 

 

It’s time to roll up your sleeves

And join in the important trench digging

And whenever the Ship of State sets sail

Ensure there is reliable rigging.

 

Talk is cheap, we know,

And more often than not, the cosmetics,

So, let us stop playing the silly games

As well as cheap political tricks.

 

It is after the ball that we realize

What we have and what we have not

So, if we major on the cosmetics,

Hollywood is all we've got.

 

Stewart Russell © November 2, 2022