No Receipts for Seats

 

 

“I normally sit there

But I guess you didn’t know,

First time here I guess

But someone could have told you so.”

 

“What are you trying to tell me?

I do not understand,

One sits in an empty pew

That is the usual plan.”

 

“I am a member here

In fact I have been for years

And right where you are sitting

I always sit down there.”

 

Everyone here knows that

And now you know it too,

Don’t try to ignore me

When I am speaking to you.”

 

 

“So I guess this is your seat,

Is that what you are trying to say?

And that you sit here all the time

And at this church that is the way?

 

Does each member own a seat?

I thought they were all free,

Even now looking at the seats

There’s not a name that I can see.

 

There’s no name on this pew

I can certainly tell you that,

I checked it when I came in

I can attest to that fact.”

 

“Well I will stand right here

Until you get up and move,

You are sitting in my seat

And I have nothing more to prove.”

 

Well he was sticking to his word

And the service soon began,

He intended standing right there

This was obviously the plan.

 

 

The seat was definitely his

And this visitor was trespassing,

This was where he always sat

And there’s no way he was moving.

 

The pastor approached the pulpit

And asked why he was standing,

He said he wanted the man to move

That’s all he was demanding.

 

“He could go somewhere else

There are many more seats,

I know you understand me pastor

So there will be no need to repeat.”

 

“In a minute I will,” the pastor said,

“If only you could prove,

Show me how that seat is yours

And I will make him move.

 

If you could produce for all of us

A genuine, authentic receipt,

I would make him move immediately

And you could have your seat.”

 

However, I know that’s impossible

And I do not need to repeat,

Since we have never held a sale

There are no receipts for seats.

 

 

So as we start this service

You have a choice of several pews,

Just remember my dear brother

That one doesn’t belong to you.”

 

Stewart Russell © February 2019

 

An Onerous Tax

 

Does anybody

Ever own a piece of land?

Yet for Barbadians

That is the general plan.

You scope around

And see a piece of land,

You pay for it with cash

Or an instalment plan.

There are a number of taxes

That you have to pay

Ranging from one to another,

This is the legal way.

It will take some years

Before it is your own

Bearing in mind

You must repay a loan.

Thereafter at a set time

And this is every year,

You must pay land tax

That does not seem fair.

 

 

 

How can the land be yours

If you must pay a tax,

And penalties are involved

If you allow it to lapse?

You pay land tax

When you are repaying the loan

And you continue to pay

After the land is your own.

Land tax is set

Depending on the size

And you must faithfully pay it

Until your demise.

It doesn’t end there

For someone else must pay

After you have gone,

That’s the Government’s way.

  

On the land you're paying for

You want to build a home,

Now your next challenge

Is paying a second loan.

You pay for the plan,

An expensive undertaking

And you build the home

But still continue paying.

 

At the end of the project

You say, that home is mine

Notwithstanding of course

It cost a pretty dime.

The land tax becomes due

In the following year

But there is an improved value

Which is then made clear.

You now pay for the land

With the building thereon

And you pay for them both

Until you are gone.

And expect a rise

In a couple years or so,

That property is never yours,

That you should know.

A lease if you please

Might be the order of the day

For you are always paying

Each and every year.

 

 

I trust that you see

What it is I am saying,

The land can’t really be yours

If you never stop paying.

 Title deeds in your hands

The mortgage comes to an end

But that is not all,

You must still pay my friend.

Perhaps land tax

Could be for ten years or so

But thereafter, I believe

Land tax should go.

Then one could say

I own a piece of the rock

Since I no longer pay land tax

On my residential lot.

Until then my friend

I must put it to you,

If you feel you own that land

That is a misguided view.

 

 

My patriotic friends

May want to take me down,

I am patriotic too

But land tax is not sound.

You pay it when you’re repaying

The loan on the land

And thereafter land tax

Is a lifetime payment plan.

This cannot be sound

And patriotic it is not

If at some time

You can’t own a piece of this rock.

I trust the powers that be

Will address this anomaly

Even though it seems

I’m the only one that is unhappy.

Stewart Russell © June 2018