Punishment

Magpie 84

 

Photograph courtesy Tess Kinkaid, Magpie Tales

The hardest rain

Can never cleanse me

Of the harm

I have done you

I stand with 

Arms open wide  to take

Whatever  punishment 

You decide is mine

I am here

You can come my love

To pronounce my fate

Which I'll accept

Barbara M Lake  ©

Trinidad WI

Sept 2011

The Sapera

Mag 83

The Snake Charmer, Henri Rousseau, 1907

Photograph courtesy of Tess Kinkaid, Magpie Tales 

The far pavilions

Shrouded in a swirling mist

The dawn seeps through

The steam from

The River Ganga

On the banks

A figure stands alone

A been held in hand

Ready to charm

With magical rhythms

Nomad of Sapera

Playing notes that mesmerize

Bring forth the

Serpents from within

Sleepy lazily slithering

Barbara M Lake  ©
Trinidad WI
September 2011

A footnote:  

I saw my fist snake charmer when I was a six year old in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka which was then Ceylon. 

The Meeting

Mag 82 

The Revenant, 1949, Andrew Wyeth

Photograph courtesy Tess Kinkaid,  Magpie Tales

Breathing is difficult
Short sharp rattling

Vision is blurred
White closing in


Life running out
Time to journey 

You are here
Again to help


Nothing to fear
Hands reach out

Body slips away
Immortal soul flies





Barbara M Lake  ©      
September 2011
Trinidad, WI

Stuck!

Mag 81 

 

  Photograph courtesy Tess Kinkaid, Magpie Tales

Old

Decrepit

Broken 

Surrounded by junk 

Bogged down

Stuck in a rut

A

Bit like life really!

Barbara M Lake ©  

September 2011

Trinidad, WI

State of Emergency in Trinidad & Tobago Update

OPERATIONAL UPDATE - 2011.09.01.

Port of Spain. Over the last 24 hours, a total of one hundred and sixty seven persons [167] were arrested. Of the total arrests within the 24 hour period, twenty seven [27] were gang related, one [1] homicide, thirty five [35] drug related, two [2] persons were arrested for firearm related charges, fifty nine [59] persons were arrested for outstanding warrants, five [5] were arrested for breach of curfew, twenty two [22] were arrested for traffic offences, with ninety six [96] tickets issued and thirteen [13] persons were arrested for other serious offences. Three [3] others were arrested for other offences. One firearm and fifteen rounds of ammunition were also seized.

To date, a total of one thousand, one hundred and forty three [1143] persons have been arrested, with three hundred and sixty six [366] arrests related to gangs, two hundred and sixteen [216] related to drug offences, two hundred and twenty eight [228] related to outstanding warrants, one hundred and eighty one [181] related to other serious offences, eighty two [82] related to breach of curfew, and thirty [30] related to homicide.

Additionally, the Coast Guard acting on intelligence seized a vessel with two (2) male Trinidadians along with two (2) male Jamaicans and confiscated a quantity of cocaine with a street value of $3.2 million dollars on board the vessel.

Issued by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Communications
State of Emergency [SOE] Communications

Of course there's much more going on as well and we will know later today whether or not the curfew times have been changed.

This came about not just because of a much needed  major crackdown on  crime and the drug shipments coming into and through this country but because a plan to assassinate the Prime Minister and the Attorney General was uncovered.