a back door
a bread-brown bakery van
windowless and converted
by stripes and a sign that says
justice delivered on time opens
and five loaves of human misery
tumble out with unwashed smell
almost as strong as barbecue-burn charcoal-charred flesh
stone face granite grip and stainless handcuffs
more cruel were the fisticuffs received
in the solitude of a cell
this is no escort-service girl escorting
through a narrow entrance
between blue uniforms with empty holsters
to a cramped cage
already contains five young citizens
also detained kept and unkempt at the State’s pleasure
the cuffs unclick and the door of the dock creaks
open before slamming shut the lock once more
so near but yet not able to communicate
sign language whispered to the few filial faces
in a sea of animosity
eager to drown in its eddy of guilt
even before the hearing the trial has begun
court all rise to be seated again
except the guards already standing
after Anubis solemn and foreboding
as a funeral on Sunday morning
enters with the scales of Maat
there are no potatoes or tomatoes
are these scales rigged like
the market vendor’s rusty metric pair
a confused crapaud hops out of
a black box
from a corner of the court
creating for one moment commotion
oohs and aahs
of surprise and superstition
followed by comic relief
at the spectacle of a six-months pregnant
Pumblechook of a policeman giving chase
as he arrests and carries captive the unfortunate
crapaud lock in mouth out
a bailiff barks silence no laughter in court
and the faithful scribe feverishly scribbles
indecipherable hieroglyphics
in a big black book
of records
a big bad-book
of the dead
Copyright ©2002 by G. Newton V. Chance
- G. NEWTON V. CHANCE
- George Newton Vivian Chance (Trinidad and Tobago) -- member of the Poet Society of Trinidad and Tobago, http://poetssocietytt.blogspot.com/ and the World Poets Society, http://world-poets.blogspot.com/ -- born in Tobago on 3rd March 1957. While residing at Rio Claro was inspired to write over a hundred poems at the turn of the Millennium. Hobbies include playing wind instruments, building computers, observing nature, reading and writing poetry. Believes that the power of a song is in its ability to evoke emotions by the marriage of lyric and music but that music without lyric can be just as powerful, that lyric without music can also be just as powerful, that there is music in the lyric and that lyric can be simple yet profound. Also, in this the age of computers, would like to model his lines after simple and efficient code and, analogous to Object Oriented Programming, achieve most of his imagery from nouns and verbs, avoiding the bloat and excess of unnecessary adjectives. This is what he aspires to attain in his poetry.
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