As Dusk Deepens

By Lynn Ockersz

Slogan-chanting dips to a dying fall…

Blue-helmets, menacing, grim-faced,

Seem to have proved their point,

But in high-rises the lights go out,

And brick and mortar lying in heaps,

Tell of building plans going awry,

While in uptown steamy restaurants,

Political jokes and horse-laughter mix,

Cricket scores cropping-up in-between,

Quite a heady mix for an Isle adrift,

Which ought to soul search and think anew,

But withered elders bending with pleas,

At the windows of purring SUVs,

And parents doing battle with hunger,

To give their children a square meal,

While ignoring their own gnawing needs,

Point to how the land’s run aground,

In its bid to make it to the top league,

For, in its ‘development thinking’,

Wealth-creation gets prized over humans,

Making this a dark hour in the Isle’s history.

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