Poems

Vehicles everywhere, cars, buses, trucks,

Trailers, minivans, bikes, bicycles.

They form long lines, some form semi-circles,

And some look almost like triangles.

People walking left and right, Everybody is looking at the stoplight.

Drivers, riders, pedestrians are waiting to make a move,

Red, green, amber.

Stop, go, slow, Drivers are happy when they see green.

But in no time, there's red again.

Horns honking, whistle blowing, tyres screeching,

People yelling move!

Some say excuse me please.

Bumper to bumper traffic.

There are vehicular sounds in the air,

The smell of exhaust as well,

Some windows are up, some windows are down.

The roads are congested and you can hardly see them.

Just the maze created by the many vehicles.

Traffic, traffic, traffic, traffic!

The hustle and bustle of the road.

Peep peep, toot toot, rickety rackety sounds,

Sounds, sounds, sounds!

All sorts of sounds, traffic sounds.

Traffic, cars are creeping, people are weeping.

It is unbearable;

Some people sit and look,

While others read a book.

WhatsApping, snap-chatting, tweeting or

face-booking

Traffic, the windshield cleaners are having a blast,

So many screens to wipe, some money at last,

The street sellers can earn some extra bucks without running after cars,

Traffic, drivers can observe what's happening around them.

Taxi drivers are thinking about different routes,

And creating their own lanes.

Hand cart-pushers are moving faster than motor vehicles,

Sirens wailing, ambulance and police cars make another lane.

Traffic, traffic, traffic.

Park and walk, frustrating.

Patience builder, driving slowly,

Potential accidents, be careful.

Traffic, beep beep.

Move noh!

- Erika Heslop Martin

 

Because You Are God

 

Because You are God

You always provide for me.

You help me to be anything I want to be.

You only require me to give You praise and pray.

You assure me that it will take me through each day.

Because You are God

Everything You bless me with I never have to repay.

It is unlike what mankind will say.

I thank you for saving my life

From the peril of the gun and the knife.

For this I magnify Your name.

Because out there is a serious game.

Because You are God

When I want things to happen in a

mad hurry

You calm me down and tell me take it easy, no worry.

You will make my cup overflow.

There is nothing that You don't know.

You sit on high and You see all below

Because you are God.

- Pat Reid

 

Taste of Passion

 

I cried at least four times

Last night,

I shivered in my sweater

All night,

Today, my body lies still

On a white sandy beach,

Intoxicated, Drowned,

My curly lips plugged.

Mouth charged with the screams

Of the night before

The night

When we both died.

You had a karambit,

Right hand,

I had a bowie,

Right hand,

Far from consciousness,

Our hearts aimed at each other,

Vengeance and Valour,

Vehemence and Vigour,

Denial shouting Desire,

overflowing,

Like the Mississippi

On the eve of Christmas 1926

But to sustain,

Naught were the endeavours,

Of instinctive stabs,

Power overwhelmed,

Two souls succumb,

To an inescapable destiny,

Fate swallowing them,

Like the night,

Disappearing into daylight.

Lateefah Smellie