We Need an Answer

 

 

What’s wrong with our team?

Pray tell!

For a while now

We are not doing well.

 

Oh, we look stylish, though,

And we hit many sixes

But the remedies we employ

Are surely not fixes.

 

I heard via social media

We had a new administrator

But after reading to the end

I burst out in laughter.

 

He was a Chinese,

Win Won Soon was his name

And immediately on his selection

We won the next game.

 

 

We beat a team badly-

Bottom of the table, Oman,

Hiring this Chinese expert

Seemed a good plan.

 

Of course, it was a fluke

As bajans would say

And immediately we returned

To our losing ways.

 

Cricket was a way of life

In the Caribbean

And for many, many years

Ours was a great team.

 

Nowadays all we can do

Is just reminisce

About the great players we had

That we sorely miss.

 

 

George Headley, Sir Garry,

Sir Vivian and Brian

Are just about four at this time

That I would mention.

 

Around these four

There’s much cricket folklore

But those who know

Know there are many more.

 

How the mighty has fallen

And to such great depths!

Rock-bottom has been surpassed

We are such a wreck!

 

Nothing seems to work

And blame is cast everywhere

Whereupon I sometimes wonder

Do they really care?

 

We need an answer

But none is forth coming,

Administrators, coaches and players,

Better we are demanding.

 

It might even be better

To pull out for a while

For right now this slapdash affair

Is not Caribbean style.

 

It hurts to the stomach

And up in the head too

And almost every game we play

Is a colossal boo-boo.

 

Winning is the exception

And at very rare times too

And everyone is lost and clueless

Not knowing what to do.

 

 

I bet the ice-cream man

Only yesterday

That the game with the Indians

Would end that same day…

 

And that we won’t exceed

Our first innings score,

That is exactly what happened

Need I say more?

 

We need an answer

And we need an answer fast!

However, don’t hold your breath

Or you’d surely pass.

 

Stewart Russell © July 15, 2023

 

Winning

 

 

For many in this current era,

Winning is just about all

And how elated these people are

When their lotto numbers are called!

 

Yes, the current vibe is winning!

Winning the competition!

Especially around Christmas time

It is an addictive tradition.

 

We just bought a new bed

And Courts gave us a lot of forms,

I must tell you the wife fill them all out

Though this is not our norm.

 

Yes, we also caught the bug

And we are hoping that we win,

Though for us winning is not everything,

We hope we win something.

 

 

Some are so bent on winning

They often win less than they lose

But they are so hooked and addicted

That they just cannot refuse.

 

Even in a simple little argument

Some people will argue all day long,

And given their bent on winning

It is unnecessarily prolonged.

 

Life seems to be about winning!

For students it’s a scholarship

And some will burn the midnight oil

To ensure they get the pick.

 

“You are moving with a winner!”

You may have seen this in an Ad

And businesses are bold to promote it

Even though their service is bad.

 

 

There are some churches

That talk a lot about breakthrough,

You simply give a tithe or sow a seed

And winning is what you do.

 

It is the primitive behavior

Which is the survival of the fittest!

If they are only ten that can make it

Then “I” must be on that list.

 

Very little thought is given, though,

To consider beyond our time

And eternal matters are overlooked

With winning on our mind.

 

The victory that Jesus wrought

On the cross at Calvary

Is considered less critically important

Than the daily lottery.

 

For occupying the human mind

Is winning on the whole,

And his sole occupation is winning

Even at the risk of his own soul.

 

But what does it profit him

If he should win the entire world

And in such an event

Lose his own soul?

 

Stewart Russell © December 7, 2022