A.D.D. Generation

by Khristal Griffith

Instant coffee.
Instant photos.
Right now,
Today!
Yesterday is when we want it.
What happened to those days
When you could take a leisurely walk down the street
Without feeling like Alice's little white rabbit
Ah late, Ah LATE!

When last did you watch the sky float by?
Yuh too busy using your
Cellular Phones
Fax Machines
EMAIL!!
Everything on the go
Broadband is too slow
Processors work at light speed these days!

The A.D. D generation is like Veruca Salt
I want it NOW, Daddy,
NOW!!
Our minds, a remote control
The channels whiz by without second glance
Memories stored on Memory Sticks
No time for second chance.

I hear stories of when things were written.... By HAND!
What?!?
No keyboard or stylus?
Penmanship?
What's that?
A luxury Liner?
(STEUPS!!) Too slow
I prefer the Concord.

Because
Time is
Money
That's in credits now, by the way!
Who has time for cold, hard cash.
Plastic over paper anytime dear
Software saves us the misery of stash.

I'm too hopped up on caffeine to wait
for the day when I'm teleported from place to place
Flash!
In an Instant
Out in an Out-stant
How Outstanding?
I'm tired of standing
Waiting for a taxi in the crowded streets of Port of Spain
Stuck in de rain
Strain, Strain, Strain
shoulder to shoulder with vagrants
with such a...
"Fragrance"
Cyar wait to get meh licence to
Kill (oops)
Female Driver on the loose.

Patience is a pigment of figments of imagination.
Road Rage is all the rage,
Cuss out somebody,
While watching yuh gas gauge.
Prices skyrocketing,
While I multitask,
Listening to my Ipod on full blast while pumping gas.

Inflation like an inflammation
Too sensitive to scratch.
Crime on the rise
Cause we settle for a quick buck
Hard Luck for the poor F***-er
Who works for a living?

We don't even have time to demonstrate
Against the hate
and the fate
Of this little island
Where words tumble from the mouths of politicians
Resplendent
Yet incoherent
Truth is lost against the noise of their falsehoods
And in the vastness of their London bank accounts.

Chin up! No time to pout!
But yuh could stand up in a line
Waiting for "B mobile"
Cyar watch yuh chile or
Send him to school so he could spell
"Breakfastses"

While you spend a fortune on that outfit for the fete
Where you could meet Death
Wining up on yuh in a party
Whispering sweet words that intrigue you
"You know how I do,
Come back to my place
I'll give you something sweet to taste"

Go home and look in the mirror
Cyar recognize yuh face
A.I.D.S in the place
And a few S.T.D's that only a test can trace
But
Yuh just couldn't stay out of that backseat
and watch T.V.
Abstain!
Like Mr. Manning say!
The same one that's
"making it safe" for your children to play
And get plucked off the streets
Sent back in plastic black sheets,
Sold to you for ransom.

Here every creed and race finds an equal place
Only God knows where to find them
Because the "boys in blue"
Don't know what to do
The A.K.S doh have no time for you.
None of your concern.
Once yuh don't touch you won't get burned.
Live in your bubble of indifference
And in silent acceptance,
Just like our generation.

Vipers! Just like the older ones say
We too busy to pray
Whether or not you believe
No matter the denomination
The A.D.D Generation
Is, unfortunately, here to stay.
That's all I have to say.

Peace.

Copyright - Khristal Griffith
Posted with the kind permission of the poet.

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A Note From The Gull

Welcome young poet! When most of our elders are viewing the world and their role in it, through pension tinted glasses, it is a pleasure to hear the voices of emergent youth speaking out. This poem had me jumping, the rhythm capturing the frenzied lifestyle being described. While this hectic pace renders us too busy to enjoy what some would describe as the slower, kinder way of life of the past, one advantage is that it compels us to cut through the "ole talk". We just don't have time for it. The down side is that sometimes it also makes us too preoccupied to sustain meaningful protest against the garbage. We are too caught up in the "keeping up". Either way, whether we are opiated by the downers of "tradition" or jittering on the uppers of "progress", the "bubble of indifference" to which the the poet refers, is just a way to escape the fact that the strings and our destinies remain firmly in the puppeteer's hands.

We don't even have time to demonstrate
Against the hate
and the fate
Of this little island
Where words tumble from the mouths of politicians
Resplendent
Yet incoherent
Truth is lost against the noise of their falsehoods
And in the vastness of their London bank accounts.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so. Thank you, Khristal.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

The Limitations of Salt, Sticks and Incantations

By Ateebo

Ah see ah snake go up de tree
Ah ‘fraid de snake come dong fuh we
Ah tell mih wife to tek de baby.
Ah fine ah stick
Ah tek it fast
Ah beat dat snake
An ah break he … ask me no chupid questions.

Ah see ah jumbie fly chu de air
Ah feel mih pores raisin’ mih hair
Ah tell mih wife to tek de baby.
Ah fine some salt
Ah tek it fast
Ah fling it straight
An he bun like grass.

Ah see mih chile eyes start to roll
Ah feel ah madness in mih soul
Ah tell mih wife, "Gi mih de baby!"
Ah fine de Bible
Ah tek it fast
Ah res it 'pon he
An ah make it pass.

Ah hear de gunshots, po, po po
Ah know dem bullets does fly low
Ah tell mih wife to tek de baby.
We fine ah corner
We tek it fast
We cover we ears
An we hope it pass.

Ah feel ah sadness in mih land
Ah dreaming tings ah cyah understand
Ah tell mih wife, "Dey go tek dis baby!"
Ah fine he numbah
Ah call it fast
Mih cousin tell me,
"Go fix yuh pass
port."

Mayombé bombé mayombé
Dem snake have eye like glass.

© 2006 - Ateebo
Reproduced with the kind permission of Ateebo.

Doggone Rubbitch [Poem]

DOGGONE RUBBITCH
By Gene Wilkes

A nasty bitch an' a dutty dog
Was limin' dong by de sea,
De bitch get vex an' tell de dog:
Haul yuh tail an' doh bodder me!
When people liming on de beach
I does get real nice food to eat,
It plenty better dan hustlin'
For scraps from dusbin on de street.
So me doh bark at nobody
Even when dey pelt mih wid stone,
When ah wag mih tail real friendly
Ah does get more dan chicken bone.
"Trini people is someting else",
De dutty dog tun rong an' say,
"Dey doh give ah shit bout nutten
When you see dey come out to play.
Dey eat dey food an' drink dey rum
An' leave rubbish all over de place,
You'd tink dat dese dam litterbugs
Doh belong to de human race.
But plenty ah dese same people
Belong to high society,
And does live in posh surroundings
Dat real tidy an' litter free.
TIDCO beach clean up committee
Does boast bout dey annual campaign,
But why should dey have to do dis
Again an' again an' again?
De tons ah rubbish dey pick up
Eh nutten to boast about...
It shows de measures dey using
Eh really have too mucha clout.
Every time dey have dey clean up
To me dey eh doin' it fair...
Good people pickin' up rubbish
Thrown by people who just doh care.
Dey should hold de ones dat litter
An' make dem self clean up dey mess,
Dat would better solve de problem
And be a warning to de res'.
We stray dog an' cobo does try
To clean up de place every time,
But better dan we to clean de mess
Dutty Trinis leave when dey lime."
De dutty dog leave Mayaro,
And went San Fernando to fete,
He hear there had plenty litter
And thought some nice morsels he'd get.
But he bounce up so much vagrant
Competing for food on de streets
Dat he really ketch he nennen
To get a lil someting to eat.
So back to Mayaro he went,
An he say never me again,
Livin' dong dere plenty better
Dan Sando I tellin' yuh plain !

© Copyright – Gene Wilkes, Cocoyea.
Posted with the kind permission of the poet.

VIEW ALL WORKS SUBMITTED BY THIS AUTHOR.
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A Note From The Gull

While not a problem peculiar to Trinidad and Tobago, littering is another symptom of a lack of civic pride. While there are laws that cover littering and illegal dumping and we can argue that littering and dumping persist because of lax enforcement of the penalties, the root of the problem remains. If an individual does not fully comprehend the impact of his or her attitude and behaviour on the society and natural environment then it's going to be very difficult, even with laws in place, to convince him or her to instinctively make the right decisions about garbage disposal. What comes more naturally it seems, is a selfishness that makes it OK and not a matter of personal shame to leave a place less lovely than it was found. It is the absence of embarrassment that I find quite amazing.

Fortunately, there is hope to be found in the good people mentioned in the poem. These are the Trinbagonians who understand the importance of, and do feel pride in their environment. On the strength of these convictions, they wish to communicate and engender this pride in the wider community. One of these movements is the Greenlight Network. Visit their website and lend your support in any way that you can.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so. Thank you, Gene.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare