Who Is Mia?

 

 

Who is Mia?

Pray, can you tell?

Is she all right?

Is she well?

 

English nuances

Are wide and varied,

You’d find them in words

As well as in queries.

 

Who is Mia?

Oh, she is the PM,

To the naïve like me

That’s no problem.

 

On the other hand

Someone like you

Will approach this query

From another view.

 

Who is Mia?

Just a change in tone

And presto!

It’s another zone.

 

 

Who is Mia?

“A search for info”

This particular Mia

I do not know.

 

Who is Mia?

“An air of contempt”

This particular Mia

I actually resent.

 

 

 

Who is Mia?

See the contrast!

If it’s not clear on paper,

It’s in the tone I ask.

 

Who is Mia?

Pray tell!

Given all she’s done,

She must be well.

 

Who is Mia?

Hear me yell!

Given what she’s doing,

She can’t be well!

 

 

Enter the divide:

The pros and the cons,

The ‘con’ is tempting

But I will move on.

 

The genuine

And the ridiculous,

The ingenious

And the ingenuous.

 

Just playing around?

Indeed not!

With lives and livelihood

This would be rot!

 

 

Who is Mia?

See where I am going?

It is time, my friend,

To get in the knowing.

 

Is she all right?

Meaning in the head

Or, is she now lying

On a sick bed?

 

Should she be hospitalized

Psychiatric-wise

Or be taken to the QEH

Before she dies?

 

Who is Mia?

Doesn’t anyone know

That she is the architect

Of the republic show?

 

With a Constitution

Or without,

That we have some law

Is not in doubt.

 

 

But who is Mia?

Who she thinks she is?

For certain we can argue

She is not Liz.

 

If you didn’t know

Now you have an idea,

Mia is the Prime Minister

Of “bout hey”.

 

To some Mia is mad,

To some Mia is sane

But rest assured, my friend,

Mia is more than a name.

 

 

Known regionally

And internationally too

Mia is seen by many

As a political guru.

 

None like Mia!

And I mean none!

Not Barrow or Adams

Arthur or Thompson.

 

Not Sandi or Stuart,

St John was remote,

Not one was like Mia,

Seriously, no joke.

 

Whatever we do

And how ever we fuss,

Mia still bestrides Barbados

Like a colossus!

 

Stewart Russell © August 16, 2023

 

What A Loss!

 

This is a loss that touches me

To the very core,

It’s my childhood friend, Sandra,

Whom I will see no more.

 

I am at a loss for words

To express what she means to me

And to that precious family of hers

Who misses her terribly.

 

The go-to person you can say

When solutions are to be fetch,

And I can never recall one time

When I have heard her fret.

 

Selflessness was her hallmark,

Those who knew her would agree,

She was a mother to the young ones,

That can be seen readily.

 

To think that in my future visits

No Sandra will be there to see

And no expectation she will turn up

To embracingly greet me.

 

I have struggled with her passing

Ever since I got the word:

Oriel and Greg passed recently

And now she is the third.

 

Margaret predeceased them all

Some years back, I recall,

But Sandra’s perceived untimely call

Is a great shock to us all.

 

 

No more Whatsapp greetings

Or encouragement for the day

And her many and varied emojis

For sure have gone away.

 

A visit to the hospital

Convinced me she was on her way

Yet, I was still disappointed

At the sad news I received that day.

 

It was Shawn who had texted

The most dread of dreaded calls,

“Sandra passed a little while ago,”

And immediately was a wall. 

 

 

 

That wall that death creates

Between a loved one and their kin,

That wall that suddenly was erected

To block me from my friend.

 

I have no cheerful words today

To offer to anyone

But in my silence simply recall

The loss of a friend now gone.

 

 

And Sandra was my friend

And always, she will be

For as long as God lends me life

And I have my memory.

 

Stewart Russell © December 11, 2022