If Ralph Had Known

  

 

If Ralph had known

It would turn out like this

Would he still have taken the leap

With such a risk?

 

Risk of a pension

Requiring more time

Or, was there something else

On his mind?

 

If Ralph had known

Would he have given up

A safe seat for the unknown

Hoping for luck?

 

A miracle perhaps,

Going against the grain

Across this political landscape

Where Mia reigns.

 

 

 

Twice he had seen it

Two audacious wipeouts,

Pray, tell me my dear Watson,

Why did he doubt?

 

 

 

Did he really think

He’d make a difference

While courting, as it turned out,

A death-sentence?

 

For, given his age,

And the carnage endured,

Would he have the political will

To ask for more?

 

If Ralph had known

The D’s was a burial ground,

Would he have seriously thought

Of turning it around?

 

I really doubt it

Yet, the warnings were rife,

He was leaving a comfort zone

For unimagined strife.

 

 

 

Ralph did take a leap

Without looking first

And of course, life is lived forward

And cannot be reversed.

 

 

 

He left one party

And divided another

And now death throes are lingering-

What a huge bother!

 

 

 

Can the D’s build back

After such a hit?

It would take a very long time,

From where I sit.

 

Time is no luxury

Where Ralph is concerned

For in my mind, he has suffered

First degree burns.

 

‘Tis a very thin line

Betwixt bravery and folly,

Which one best describes Ralph?

You tell me.

 

No crossing again

If PM Mia has her way

Given too, that 28 supported her

Only yesterday.

 

One absented

After saying her bit

But Prime Minister Mia Mottley

Was having none of it.

 

 

 

She registered her vote

From over in away

As though she was telling someone

Not today.

 

If Ralph had known

That only he would cross

Would he still have crossed over

And suffer such loss?

 

Stewart Russell © February 26, 2026

 

Rome Is Burning

 

 

Rome is ablaze

But this Rome is Barbados,

Much has been promised

But the times are troublous.

 

You in your bubble

Thumbs a-twiddling,

Oblivious to the goings on

While walls are falling.

 

Morality is sinking fast

And anything goes,

A paradigm shift, you insist,

Life in death throes.

 

Conservatism was awful

Liberalism is the thing,

And anything is excusable

To ensure your fling.

 

A fling brief and fleeting

But what the heck!

You do whatever suits you

To enjoy the trek.

 

 

For what is life really

Unless lived on the edge?

Why allow some unseen being

Restrict you by a hedge?

 

Ear drink, and be merry

For tomorrow you die

And your longest memory

Will be a momentary sigh.

 

Rome is burning

And with it so are you,

And seemingly there is nothing

That anyone can do.

 

Much has been promised

But little is being done,

And rather than going forward

Full circle we have come.

 

It is a pseudo progress

Meaning no progress at all,

Same old, same old is evident,

That’s certainly my call.

 

 

Good is being outlawed

In myriad ways

And evil fills the imagination

Just like in Noah’s days.

 

Brazen is the approach

And it’s right in your face,

No shame, no embarrassment,

No cognizance of disgrace.

 

The world’s ways are enticing,

Its sanctions an allure:

On one hand its approval,

On the other a forced control.

 

A strange word is sanction-

An opposite of sorts,

It’s a favour to the compliant

But if they are not, abort!

 

God is too conservative

And all them that follow Him,

Better still a pantheon of gods

That embraces every sin.

 

 

I tell you, Rome is ablaze

But this Rome is Barbados,

Its leadership is confounded,

We are in death throes.

 

And our children?

What can be done for them?

Only God knows at the moment,

He can solve the problem.

 

Stewart Russell © February 10, 2023