The Cat’s Claws (For Basdeo Panday)
Paranoia stalks the land
like cat’s claws
on a butterfly’s wings.
Hush!
Words are villains,
Thoughts, treason.
Actions denote revolution, connote deeds untold.
Perception becomes reality
in this land where paranoia stalks
like cat’s claws on butterfly wings.
The sun rises like a red moon from the south.
Blistering, cracking, searing,
tearing this land into a great divide.
Parched voices cry out,
Dust filled vessels
Make no noise
Dream your dreams,
but withhold the vision.
Rescind your vow of independence
“Freedom, remember, is never absolute”
Paralysis ensnares
this arid land
Mice gnaw through
the black and white, and red,
and wretched anxiety seizes the brain
like cat’s claws on a butterfly’s wings.
Hush!
Feet patter swiftly near the doorsteps.
Hush!
Voices whisper at the window..
Hush!
Cover tight your children’s mouths.
Hold in their sacred breaths.
Suffocate them if you must…
Scratch the surface gently now,
like a cat’s paws on a butterfly’s wings.
watch it bleed,
pain is your friend, my friend,
It proves you’re alive…
Who decides our fortunes?
The cat’s claws.
on a butterfly’s wings.