History (1990)

(A preliminary critique of a people challenged by a future impossible.)


History is boisterous in her lessons of Age,
Makes no pretense of favour or rage.
The little, the limited, the lone is lost,
The lessons are that such are the cost.
Yet did an isle an exceptional precedent set -
Battled her fate and abated a bet.
Lone, little and limited became a cause,
To pursue the challenge and chart her course.
The rhythm of the people set upon the beat
Of cultures diverse like flotsam of a fleet.
Amassed, clashed but finding a form,
Deliver themselves from the ideas of norm.
Break free from the thoughts that mar,
Challenge these forces and drive them afar.
Like gongs in unison that beg the gods unleash,
Favour, benevolence – end fasting with feast.
Perhaps Fortune herself did smile on this isle,
The march of folly passed by and while;
Necessity borned of survival inspired diversion,
To a different drumbeat and to Nation.
Should odds be nigh and were nigh again -
When hope is low, do we unite in vain
Battle disdain with sovereignty hard won
Set sure in belief as brothers, we are strong
Then hence, to weather the storm.


4 July 1990