I recall a song
That was sung by a popular group,
No doubt the singer
Must have been horribly spooked.
He sang of the experience
He had had after the ball
When the seemingly beautiful young wife
Made his countenance fall.
With eyes of marble,
And false teeth of gold,
She was no doubt a treasure
For eyes to behold!
Hair that was shoulder length
No doubt, not her own,
And a deceptive wooden leg
That later was gone.
Each was set in its place
That was before prepared for the item
And the removal of all these
Caused our singer a problem.
Her false teeth she placed in water
And she also removed her glass eye,
The wooden leg was propped against the door
And her hair was hung up to dry.
This was not the singer’s order
But it fits my poem quite right
Since to my way of seeing it,
Cosmetics were the order of the night.
And so, I switch to Barbados
As we celebrate another year
During this historic month of November
And to behold what do appear.
A whole lot of cosmetics
Being plastered on my bajan girl,
So many, she is almost indistinguishable
And it has my head in a whirl.
From Independence to Republic
So far, it’s just a name,
Almost an entire year has passed
And it’s pretty much the same.
No longer have we a Governor General:
A President is now in place
But her duties are still ceremonial,
With a simple change of face.
Some suggest it be executive
To give to her a little more weight,
Something more than just a figure head
To match our Republic State.
No more Independence Day
There is a new appellation,
Happy Barbados National Day to all
When we celebrate our Nation.
A change re the constabulary
To the Barbados Police Service,
And the renaming of Her Majesty Prison
Was also on the list.
Whatever was of the Crown
Is now regarded as the State,
But change must be more than cosmetic
And this at a reasonable rate.
The constitution must follow suit
Having not been done before,
And the cart-before-the-horse behavior
Must go out the colonial door.
To let go we must let go
And not only of the colonial ties
But all those who feel we are up for grabs
We must dare to defy.
No genuflecting before the UN
Or any other global organization,
Friends of all we can most certainly be
But selling out to any, we must shun.
And while we dress up for festivals
We must do so in modesty
And when we go back to our work place,
It must be pride in our industry.
Away with the superficial;
The cosmetic is only skin deep,
Name changes and nothing more, my friends,
Speak only to being cheap.
Leaders, you are elected to serve,
Not strut around looking swell,
And the talk you so expertly put down
Is not serving this country well.
It’s time to roll up your sleeves
And join in the important trench digging
And whenever the Ship of State sets sail
Ensure there is reliable rigging.
Talk is cheap, we know,
And more often than not, the cosmetics,
So, let us stop playing the silly games
As well as cheap political tricks.
It is after the ball that we realize
What we have and what we have not
So, if we major on the cosmetics,
Hollywood is all we've got.
Stewart Russell © November 2, 2022
