Trickle Down

 

Two basic strategies

Well, maybe three,

Determine how the poor fares:

To eat or stay hungry.

 

Barbados, a two-party system
Now basically one,

With two thirty-love drubbings

One is almost gone.

 

A hand-up recently

Seems not appreciated,

A cross-over appears to be loved

But also hated.

 

Vehemently both ways

And thus, a split,

A cavernous split in my view

Where foes won’t quit.

 

Before the death throes

Of this famous party,

It was an alternate Government,

Hale and hearty.

 

Now it struggles daily

So much from inside

That it seems particularly bent

On political suicide.

 

A mere trickle of life

A defector from the BLP foes,

The second in a real sense

Adding to the DLP woes.

 

 

Double party leaders

Both from the other party:

One just a few years back,

The other recently.

 

A trickle down from the BLP,

A hope for more to follow

But this hope seemingly dashed!

Too much to swallow.

 

A BLP/DLP in the making?

Don’t ask me!

Better ask the Prime Minister:

Mia Amor Mottley.

 

If infiltrators or not

She would probably know

But there is some trickle down,

That’s for sure.

 

 

Talking ‘bout trickle down

It’s an economic strategy,

Practised for a very long time

By the BLP.

 

Take care of the employer

And the employee will eat

Crumbs from the master’s table;

Isn’t this neat?

 

Grantley practised it

And so too, did his son Tom,

Owen halted it for two terms

And then continued on.

 

It was taken up by Mia

Particularly so recently,

Everybody’s against the consumer:

BLPC, the PM and FTC.

 

More than likely, though,

Trickle down will trickle back up,

Under a BLP administration

This is the poor man’s cup.

 

 

Barrow’s DLP was different

That insignia long gone,

Ever since its founding principle

The DLP has moved on.

 

Take care of the poor

And the rich will get their share,

From the rich the poor have to buy

So, the rich won’t have a care.

 

Trickle down trickles back up

It’s so obvious to me,

It was so with Grantley and Tom,

It’s so with PM Mottley.

 

I said two basic strategies

Well, maybe three,

And I guess you are wondering

What that third one be.

 

Well, it is welfare-ism:

Line them up for handouts,

It was revisited during COVID:

A BLP ploy without a doubt.

 

From the masses up

Or, trickle down,

When either is handled poorly

The poor is less strong.

 

Put money in their pockets

Then send the taxes sky high

Or trickle down that doesn’t reach

And they will still die.

 

Two obvious practices

By two distinctive parties,

Now that there is essentially one,

Who will fight fuh we?

 

 

Ronnie versus Ralph

With the BLP running free

Well, except for the Marcia Weekes Show,

Dem fighting fuh we?

 

I wish I could hear

Another nine have crossed,

Twenty-ten would be just right

To temper the boss.

 

A BLP/DLP party?

Anything is better than this,

A vibrant Opposition in Parliament

Is what I miss.

 

A repeat of history

Re a parting from Grantley,

Why can’t we have it again?

This time from Mottley.

 

Stewart Russell © May 13, 2024