New Year's Eve

Mouth can say anything.
Political pimps can paint pictures
and Academic Idiots
quote statistics
but on the ground
is where you find reality.

I can recall years in which I had
six different parties to attend
and en route would be enticed
by other parties
sometimes winding up at a
dance I didn't know about ten
minutes before I arrived.

I can recall the music blasting,
contrasting as two sounds fought
out across a street

I can remember every other house
full of lights and people filling
the roads

In 2010 the song was 'wear what you have'
because no one really had money to buy
anything beyond food and pay utilities.

Xmas passed quietly in Jamaica.
A few carols on the radio, a
few fairy lights here and there
but so few so little one could
miss the season
because there wasn't much of a season.

New Year's Eve

No parties in earshot, the roads quiet
no gaudily dressed people milling and
moving

As midnight approached a few crackers
here and there, but nothing much
and then it was over

People neither have money nor hope.

Few people got Xmas bonuses this year.
Few companies had parties.

People do not have money; those who have
it aren't spending it.

Xmas and New Year's Eve passed quietly
on the Rock.