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Last Updated: Jul 23, 2019 - 12:38:58 PM |
Are we or are they in the Living Room
I’m a tourist too
who might leave and not return,
who might go and not come back
though I am living over the hill
over the hill where
laws are not enforced
where any buck-up goes
on the bus,
over the hill,
you stop anywhere,
you do as you please
same bus, same passengers,
get downtown, get to Bay Street
and different rules apply
tourists our guest
in our living room
in our front room
tourist spaces, holy ground
you must take off your shoes
over the hill you can break any law
you can break any rule
the unholy, abominable
booming boom of music
litter as you like, where you like,
any mess would do
chaos, mayhem, tangle up
is good enough for local us
but I have seen better
I have been elsewhere
and I am insulted
as many others like me are
who see
how tourist spaces are kept
are treated
how what is considered home-
who are considered to be home
are treated
it is because of this that
Bahamians in large numbers
are going abroad to study
and are staying away
are living abroad
are not coming back
we need to make this place-
this space or these spaces
where we live
attractive too, sacred too
holy ground
who are tourists that we are not
who is a tourist that I am not
why am I/are we considered to be
less important/less significant
why is my part of the country
left to descend
into what is like the garbage dump
why is where I live
on so many levels/in so many ways
because of neglect/because of laws
that are not enforced
quite close to scornful
instead of governed/instead of policed
people left to do as they wish
as they choose/as they please
as if to say
used to no better
we deserve no better
but I want order/I want orderly
I want nice/a better life
what I is, a mangy dog
lousy, with fleas, with lice
why am I and my part
of town neglected
why is where I live
where the lack of rules rule
where chaos
is what orders the day
how is it and why is it
that tourists are considered
to be better than ourselves
to be better than us
Bahamians of great value,
intellectually and economically
are choosing to live/
are choosing to go/
are choosing to live and work
where they too can feel
and can be first class
who wants to live,
who wants to be in a place where
tourists are cherished
and citizens are not
loose, the rules which govern us
where there are rules
they are worn slack
like the belt around the middle-
about the waist of a policeman
with a big protruding belly
fat with what he accepts
to look the other way
no looking the other way
though where and when
our tourists are involved
who
are more precious
by far them we are
there are Bahamians
who are working at NASA
who are so valuable
that they have bodyguards
here at home a Bahamian
could constantly
be rubbed the wrong way
and we must take it/must accept it
must accept that that is how it is
that that is the way things are
even if/even when
we are completely rubbed out
© Obediah Michael Smith, 2019
circa 11 AM Sunday 14.7.19
© Copyright 2019 by thebahamasweekly.com
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