Fifty-Three Years

Fifty-three years, what does that mean?

I guess you would say middle age,

But for a nation, that’s pretty young

Though getting ready for adult stage.

However, it means, we have seen a lot

A lot from which we should have learnt,

Repeating the same lessons all the time

Means a lot of time will be burnt.

Precious, valuable, can’t recall time

With a lot of wasted effort too,

Two very precious commodities, these are,

I am sure that you share my view.

Fifty-three years of progress

And that we have certainly seen

Even though still appended to Great Britain

Since her queen is still our queen.

Shacking up in recent times with T and T

A satellite, you may say

And still searching for an identity

Now trying out the USA.

When the US sneeze we get a cold

This I am sure you have heard,

Nowadays it is all kind o’ flu

And I don’t mean to be absurd.

Presently we are obsessed with Trump

And how to impeached an apple

While we too have a myriad of problems

With which we seem not to grapple.

But remember, fifty-three is growing up

We are not yet old,

For a nation that is young

So as youth we can be bold.

Be bold in taking a stand for right

Even if against the world,

Be it the UK, the USA or the UN

We need to stand on God’s Word.

They may withhold their sanctions

When we don’t join them in their wrong

But if we stand on the Almighty’s side

He will make us strong.

Strong to take a stand

When many others fall like bowling pins,

Upright and bold and resolute

In God, we are bound to win.

Fifty-three years should be an eye-opener

Regarding our success and failure

And by learning from them both,

Enhance the prospects of our future

Praise and thanks to the Almighty

For all we have achieved,

Fifty-three years is about growing up

We need to do that with speed.

For fifty-three years we are grateful

Lord, we give you praise,

The lessons learnt, may we never forget

Let this be more than a phase.

We tend to have short memories

And repeat our past mistakes,

May we rise above this error

And stay on the narrow and straight.

Stewart Russell © November 2019

Remembering Ossie Moore

 

To comedian number one

All the others merely follow

And when a comic history is written

They will be in his shadow.

They even use his jokes

Up to this very day,

Thus enough evidence to show

Which comedian led the way.

I say Ossie

And you say Moore,

Then I say jokes

And you say galore.

We have many bajan characters

Both alive and dead,

If you have a problem with this

Just forget what I said.

One such character

Was named Ossie Moore,

We does still laugh at he jokes

Even though we hear dem before.

Ossie Moore was born

In the year nineteen hundred

And sometime time in 1976

Ossie Moore was declared dead.

Don’t  ask me why

Ossie was declared dead,

I just have a very strong feeling

He was not asleep in bed.

Enough of that, though,

Let me get to his jokes,

He was not the brightest man on earth

But for sure, he was no “ole goat”.

He liked to be called Ossie

Or you could call him Moore,

But never the two together

Or you would vex him sore.

He worked for a Magistrate

As a handyman, I was told

But that was before he died

At only seventy-six years old.

Ossie was blamed

For a whole lot of stuff

But it made him famous

Though then it was tough.

I understand he lit a $5 bill

To find a lost quarter

That he had lost some night,

You could imagine de laughter.

Another night he lost a quarter

Up in Payne’s Bay

But was found looking for it

Down Carlton way.

His reason for this

Was that Payne’s Bay had no light

So he searched for it in Carlton

Where it was quite bright.

 

Reported on two occasions,

He put the donkey in de cart

Whereupon he became the jackass

Boy, wasn’t he smart?

On the third occasion

When he was stopped,

“Talk to the driver”

Was what he said to the cop.

I heard he caught a green lizard

And put it down to ripe

Could you imagine?

That must have been a sight.

Required to spell the word pin

He omitted the “i”

 And then argued it would be a needle,

He’d make you laugh till you cry.

He was once instructed

To get the yard fire bright,

Well, he “ketch fire” the yard...

I guess he felt he was right.

Once required as a cook

To put pepper in de pot,

His boss must have been pretty mad

When he saw what he got.

Pepper, the dog

Became part of the meal,

If it was your dog

How would you feel?

Once he went to a store

And purchased a table

But left it behind

Because he felt it was more able.

 

After all, he had two feet

And the table had four,

It should get home before him

That was Ossie Moore.

Ossie Moore didn’t know his tables

But he knew their tune well

And when it was table time,

The notes he would yell...

Hums hums are hums

Hums into hums hums,

Hums hums are hums

Hums into hums hums.

“Ossie, what are you doing

You stupid goon!”

“Teacher, I don’t know the words

But I sure know the tune.”

His classmates

 Should have answered,

“Dumb dumb is dumb, Ossie Moore,

You are so dumb.

Every fool has his own sense

Is good bajan advice,

We should not be too quick to judge

I believe Ossie was nice.

Remember for whom he worked

A Magistrate, if you please,

So be sure of what you are doing

When you choose someone to tease.

There will always be a mention

Of this bajan icon

And, like the song we often sing,

It is Payne’s Bay he come from.

Ossie’s real name was

George Ethelbert Oscar Moore,

Though some considered him mentally slow

He has a place in bajan folklore.

Stewart Russell © November 2019

My Wish for Barbados

Just a short while ago

We were celebrating Yuletide,

It was the month of December

And the temperature was mild.

 Christmas was gone in a flash

And resolutions were being made

With the hope, I would imagine

That one or two would prevail.

Now in the month of November

Fast approaching Independence Day,

Time really flies, it is true,

We cannot help but say.

It was tied to having fun

But as I see it, no longer so,

It appears, at least to me

It is now on rapid go!

Sometimes I get the feeling

We are hurtling towards something,

I just trust it’s something good,

I mean, something worth enjoying.

This year has had its share

Of things quite horrifying,

Particularly the first three months

With a number of our youth dying.

The gun was partly responsible

And so too was the knife,

I long for a day to come

When there will be no more strife.

I wonder if it is possible

It can happen in my time

But I would surely like a Barbados

Full of people who are kind.

Like in earlier times

In our booming tourist industry

When the tourists themselves spoke

Of our vibrant hospitality.

It appears then, we understood

What tourism meant to us

And we did everything possible

To be a people they could trust.

We had our sea and sun

Just like we still have today

But we also had a people

Who understood the bajan way.

O that we could return

Not necessarily to the past

But to the attitudes and behaviors

When Barbados was simply class.

To the community spirit

That we are trying so hard to revive

That in a past, not so long ago

It just naturally survived.

A time when drugs were unheard of

And community spirit was strong

A block was under a streetlamp

And not for planning wrong.

But for passing on information

About the olden days

And teaching those who gathered

About the proven bajan way.

The attitude of sharing

And looking out for one another,

O, that we could return to this

And get rid of the present bother.

With progress has come a price

That really would not have been

If we had maintained the attitude

Of that earlier bajan scene.

As this year hurtles on

To its inevitable end,

I wish that we would return

To those attributes, my friend.

Stewart Russell © November 2019

Take Note

As we celebrate

Independence year fifty-three

Let us take note

It is no longer a spree

Fifty-three years of nationhood

Years of continuous struggle

Years of success and promise

But also years of much trouble

More so in these latter years

As we confront our fears

A lot of fret and a lot of care

Blood and sweat and tears

A change of governance

In our fifty-second year

With prospects and promises

That better was near

The vulnerable of our country

Still the vulnerable

And hoping that this will change

If such is at all possible

Water woes and garbage

Mounting up every day

Commuting from place to place

Difficult in every way

The challenge of recession

And the intervention of BERT

An economy once promising

In the grip of IMF support

All systems still on slow

A serious interruption in the flow

Material and human resources

Always getting ready to go

Difficulty in doing business

Everything taking a long time

With the prospect of enterprise

Ever on decline

Sick schools and buildings

And our youth devoid of feeling

Less focus on the moral

Prayer and Bible reading

Minorities becoming majorities

In matters of little repute

Time and effort wasted

On fruitless and vain disputes

The suspicion of sabotage

And that for whatever reason

The marijuana discussion

And the silly gender season

The fleecing of our people

By business people most corrupt

The “dog eat dog” mentality

A most destructive construct

A blatant disregard for God

And most things pertaining to Him

A mounting mocking perception

On what the Bible calls sin

A metaphorical procuring

Of our own coffins and caskets

And with a bent on spiritual suicide

Many appear dead set

A plethora of ideas

From the intellectually acclaimed

And universities and colleges

Now centres for the insane

The lettered and the illiterate

Almost indistinguishable

I would never have believed

This could ever be possible

The brighter we become

The duller in commonsense

Sorry to those who wear this cap

If you deem this an offence

  

I prescribe the introspection

Which has already begun

And sincerely hope at the end of it

The foolish thinking will be done

Observe the open punctuation

Do so with an open mind

Let’s return to our moral underpinnings

I deem this an opportune time

A transparent trust in God

And our Judaea-Christian constitution

I make bold to declare today

Christ is still our salvation

The highlight of a thriving nation

Is a nation under God

And other claimants to such success

Are only imposters and frauds

Stewart Russell © November 2019