Our Crime Scene

Scaling new heights

Or plunging deeper depths,

The crime level in Barbados

Makes one upset.

Whether tourist or local

It really doesn’t matter

Gun crime in Barbados

Is a colossal bother.

Eight murders committed

And it is still January:

Four men and four women

This is cause for worry.

Quite a lot of recommendations

But no remedy in sight,

The frequent hail of bullets

Puts several to flight.

The gun has accounted

For five of the dead,

Sorry, not really the gun

It’s the trigger-happy instead.

The gun is now the way

To quickly settle a conflict

Hence, no longer the long talk,

That doesn’t quite fit.

It is apparent to me

Money and drugs are involved

So for a deal gone wrong

The gun is the resolve.

An adjustment in the duties

Of two Cabinet Ministers

Was the most recent attempt

To deal with the monsters.

It is the tip of the iceberg

If I may coin that phrase

And when I read the court pages

I am particularly dazed.

It is mostly the small man

Or those at the bottom end

But the ones truly responsible

Cannot be found my friend.

The guns are coming in,

They are not made in this place

But the importers are operating

Such that there is no trace.

Let me explain a little

By what I mean by trace:

Turning a blind eye

Is as effective as turning one’s face.

You cannot tell me

How well I can or cannot see

Especially if cowered by a threat

Or offered some money.

Drugs, guns and money

Are like three peas in a pod

And in our beloved Barbados

They provide many a job.

Filthy lucre some will say

But it is income nevertheless,

Big bucks and quick bucks

With such many are impressed.

When I started this poem

It was murder number eight,

I left for a bit and before I returned

Number nine was on the plate.

Some days have been allotted

To have an emphasis on prayer

Commencing on February the first

And to continue for three days.

These murders are so senseless

To all that can think

As the lawless and thoughtless

Bring our country to the brink.

As a country we have strayed

From the rudiments of God

And we are paying with our life

Having connived with the Fraud.

Prayer might help

It might very well do

But we need to get back to God,

That is my view; is it yours too?

Stewart Russell © January 2019

The “I” in SIN

I felt I had to write

But I knew not what,

However I persisted

And here is what I got.

Looking at the first verse

Here is what I saw

The “I” is dominating

Hence the self-rule law.

There is a tendency

To think so much of self,

Me, myself and I

Put others on the shelf.

Not quite the advice

That’s ordered in the Word:

God then others then I

It’s like I hadn’t heard.

The “I” so imposing

Sticks out like a sore thumb,

And reaching out to others

Not nearly so much fun.

It’s at the root of all evil

I must always be first,

And only by the Holy Spirit

Can one effect the reverse.

Lucifer was the first

That sought to push the “I”,

Now he’s the source of evil

Having left the sky.

Eve followed thereafter

As Satan led the way,

It must be mine she thought

And so it is today.

What ever the “I” sees

It is for the “I” to own,

And so we have a world of “I”

And the “I” lives there alone.

Except of course for the “I’s”

Who see the same as he,

If there is any getting

The getting must be me.

Certainly not a good one

This portrait I have painted

But definitely a picture

With which we are acquainted.

The “I’s” have it

And that is unanimously so,

No wonder the Rastas declare

“I” and “I” in co.

God becomes the big “I”

I must be just like Him,

First Satan then Eve

Then a world full of SIN.

Do not misunderstand

The verse before this verse,

To be our own gods

Brings on us SIN’s curse.

Seize It Now!

 It has to be mine

And not tomorrow “I” urge

But now is the best time.

The “I” in SIN spells greed

Or avarice you may say,

Whatever you may call it

The “I” is the SIN-sick way.

Stewart Russell (c) January 2019

God Cares and So Do People

Have a satisfactory Saturday!

You are privileged to be here

And even if nobody does

Remember that God still cares.

In fact He cares through people

That’s how God operates,

In our most depressing times

It’s through people He liberates.

So the next time you think

That nobody cares

Take a look at how God uses people

To answer your prayers.

Be careful with the sentiment

That nobody cares

It is never ever true

However circumstances appear.

It’s the devil’s pity party

That he invites us to attend,

It is his over-worked strategy

To drive us around the bend.

He paints it worse that it is

In colours of the darkest hue,

Remember his aim is to deceive me

And also to mislead you.

So amidst the constant grind

Focus on the people that care,

God has placed them in your life

In answer to your prayers.

God inspires a two-way stream

As we share with one another,

The gains are of mutual benefit

Not to just one but also the other.

So if you started today on a low

You need not remain there,

Start your climb by remembering

Those dear people that care.

Stewart Russell © January 2019

What A Farce!

What a farce evolution is!

Something out of nothing,

Give me just one billion years

And nothing will be bread-pudding,

The nothing at the beginning

Will become something in the end

What a farce such thinking is!

Enough to drive me round the bend.

Intellectual giftedness

Declares it must have been so

And the idea of a Creator God

Is now declared a “no-no”.

What a farce such nonsense is!

And worse…people believe it,

All it took was billions of years

And presto!  We have a fit.

So what was in the beginning?

Nothing!  I tell you, nothing!

But gradually, just understand

Nothing became something.

And you actually believe this?

O yes, I really do

And given another billion years

You will believe it too.

Well I guess I’ll just wait and see

If what you say is true

And just in case you’re not around

I’ll find a way of telling you.

To think that we have a facility

With which we are able to think

But when it comes to lunacy

We just teeter on the brink.

But I guess nothing is something

Especially if it’s intangible

And for the forces behind all we do

Nothing becomes the principle.

  

For all that we see is ordered

By that we cannot see,

The mind and energy and cyberspace

Are pretty obvious to me.

If God is nothing you have a point:

Something comes from nothing

Since all the forces we cannot see

Are responsible for everything.

What a farce! I must repeat

If something is really nothing,

However, I’ll settle for God, the Creator:

He’s the maker of everything.

Stewart Russell © January 2019