Under the shade we flourish
But we stand in barren fields
Young minds are starved
Swept
To unfulfilling paradigms
They lose sight of
Hope and patriotism
Sucked further
Into a whirlpool of
Complacency, Ignorance
Arrogance and Immaturity.
We pledged to freedom our manhood...
While our womanhood and childhood
Lay neglected and abandoned
Alcoholism, rape, child abuse,
Sexual exploitation, domestic violence
Mounting suicides...
And as the gradient steepens,
We still claim to be free
But shackles bind us by our hands and feet.
Jobs rarer than pink elephants
Beggars adorn our streets
Yet a chosen few enjoy tax breaks,
Immunity to The Law,
And Our tax dollars...
But no one holds accountable
The tyrants that still linger
So while parochial leaders fill their own coffers
Tens of thousands remain below poverty line
Where’s the freedom that was professed?
We’re still waiting on tomorrow’s noon
Oppression’s rod clings to us like an eagle's talons...
Continue to flee... and who can blame them?
We are no longer hewers...
Instead we’re being hewed
By rising costs and stagnant wages,
Limited opportunities
Facilitated by nepotistic despots
The might of truth has proven weak
Our leaders proven Godless
They blind us; segregate us
Using red or blue
To the point that
We no longer are united
And can no longer recall
The sweet taste of unity.
We are the architects of our nations design
As a people we continue to transcribe
From the examples provided by
Countless nations before us...
But instead of extrapolating a sustainable design
We are engineering the blueprints for a revolution
That is forthcoming
It is coming...
I hear it in the distance
Like the clanking of chains
Worn by long lines of untouchables
And as the voice of oppression
Reverberates and echoes off the hillsides
I realize that our oppressors linger on
The Baymen have departed
But their legacy remains
I can hear it in the distance
Thundering down these hills
Carving further into these valleys
Like the corruption that carves us into oblivion
I can hear it in the distance...
And it is time to change our course.
We must face this giant like our forefathers
Faced the Spaniards off St. Georges Caye
Like them we must stand united...
Many races under one flag
For the good of the nation
Not the good of our own pockets
Like a forest
We must stand United
Buttresses sunk deep
That we may cast a shade
So others may flourish
For only through unity and justice
Will barren fields
Transform to dense jungles
Only then will we be a land of free
Men, women and children...
Under the shade we flourish...
We must replant the trees
© José V. Guerra Awe
