I who can’t understand
big hard-bones man
big hard-back man
win’ing up in hot sun
making antics in hot sun
drinking whisky and rum
in some skimpy costume
say they having fun
they not making movie
they playing the mas
I who used to drive taxi
seventeen miles to town
or sail the ocean
or fly the sky
or submarine below the sea
in a cardboard box below the house
say maybe
they living out
their boyhood fantasy
down Broadway and South Quay
and across the Savannah
having a grand time a gay time
sorry I mean making merry
in the festivity
on my tv
they used to show me
women in gyrating frenzy
but not again
since all them prude
say the mas too rude
all them hypocrite complain
about vulgarity
they say Poison
poisoning children mind
and morality
they say Hart
could give old men hard
or even heart attack
maybe the solution
is dosage by prescription
at prohibitive price
like a pill
ending in afil
so when them Varga girl
and Vegas showgirl
kick up their leg
according to Kitchener
to make their manima
to show off and expose their pride
camera ducking for cover
photographer trying to hide
so they start showing me
man bam-see questionable bam-see
in thongs on my tv
they turn me off
so I turn my damn tv off
who want to see man bam-see
what madness is this
this male chauvinist
bacon producer
say what you doing there
what in hell you doing there
give the women a chance
to free up and play
the women say
better to be in a band
where you could get wet
with rain and sweat
and beer
under a cosmopolitan cloud of colour
in a sea of masqueraders
than to get sand
in your thong and beach bikini
you could do that all day after
up Maracas or down Manzanilla
the King and Queen is the true mas lover
them costume cost dinero mucho in US dollar
the King and Queen costume is a wonder
a truly wonderful work of art
but I can’t help but wonder
how the King and Queen does pay for that
and destroy it after
where is the copper work of Bailey
the tradition and the legacy
the carnival artefact museum
the carnival art gallery
bring back the Dragon and the Bat
the Bookman the Speech Band the Peirrot Grenade the Wild Indian the Jab Jab the Midnight Robber the Fancy Sailor the Minstrel the Devil Mas the Historical Mas the Fantasy Mas the banner the headpiece the staff the flag
but leave the blessed bathing suit alone
leave the women to wine as they want
is their constitutional right
to wine if they want
how they want
when they want
where they want
on who they want
after all is only for a day or two
and after is prim and proper as usual thank you
and maybe a little ashes too
all I ask
is that the flabby hide their flab
and cover their flubber
better to be a Minshall true believer
and work the street theatre
than to beach and quiver
all that Moby Dick blubber
even Bacchus must balk at the thought
is a serious thing
in this time of fender bending
in this time of gender bending
in this time of mind bending
I asking
where the wire bending
Copyright ©2001 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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