3 by Franklyn Michael Verse 1 Growling and howling like a giant beast It beats, it bleats, it roars, it is all around A terrifying sound Thunderous crackling Stabbing, flashes of lightening Howling hiss of horizontal rain Frightening, Gray skyscrapers of sodden clouds Deny sunlight in the midst of the day Darkness, envelopes all Darkness, over our land Darkness, over mountains and sea Darkness, over you, over me Darkness, a blanket for our country Verse 2 The hurricane is here Feels like it’s everywhere Category four Now at my door Anxious and cradled in fear I whisper a marathon prayer Resurrecting faith and embracing hope The crash, a slash it’s gone to ground Composites of memories now shattered all around A creak, a creak, a creak It lifts and shifts and starts to leak My hope for a roof lies in a contractor’s integrity Did he do all that he had promised me Verse 3 Invisible damage but audible grief There is as yet no sense of relief A new tomorrow I foresee No electricity No computer, no cell phone, no TV WhatsApp is What’s gone No microwave convenience Three stones or a coal pot Black soot and smoky fare Sardine survival, corned beef and biscuit revival Facebook will be silent, Instagram too No Signal to website access, what will the youth do I have been here before, life in a reverse process Facing the force and survived It is a wild and crazy ride Tomorrow my life will change again for many months Back to basics no computer fonts Verse 4 Tomorrow I may see Death, damage, destruction expansively Tomorrow, I will experience delay, disorder and feel despair Category 4 crash landed here We know the rhythm, the cycle and sequence June to November but worse in September Emotionally we embrace our ancestors’ souls You our forebears trod this road Help, help us to carry our load Yes, our Caribbean reality Archipelagic geography Equatorial proximity The root causes of vulnerability Today, we must plan, adopt, adapt with innovation Determination Embrace Resilience Climate Change is not surreal We need a Global, Green New Deal
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