Dream After Katrina
for Keith Russell

West End was like Stonehenge
when the storm was over

boulders big as buildings
the sea washed up
in a row along the road near the shore

houses near the sea
shifted upon foundations
or washed away

graves desecrated
by wind, by water

coffins floating
people scared, hurting, eyes wide

Grand Bahamians, all Bahamians
unable to believe the damage,
damnation, the carnage


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
1:38 a.m. 27/may/07

In Khaki with Black Sticks

how it irks me to see
policemen and women
like peacocks, like peahens
in their khaki, in their stripes,
as proud as could be
with their promotions
and their pay increases

happy to gobble these up
with little or no concern about
the milieu we are subjected to
by people breaking laws with impunity

especially persons
constantly disturbing the peace
without a word or gesture of dissent
from the police

instead they get off
and even before getting out of uniform
they themselves add to the din


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
9:46 p.m. 26/may/07

I have the word
and therefore the world
in this pen I grip
in this pen in my fist

© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
6:28 p.m. 23/may/07


too full of dillies,
need them to be picked
you do me no favor
too full of timidity
to tackle what needs to be
to tickle who needs to be


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
6:00 p.m. 25/may/07


Pill Away Pull Away

Lord God Almighty,
to line up, to measure up,
is my wish, is my prayer

that I'd go right,
that what I do or say or write
would be right

that effectiveness would be maximized
in this life as well as in the next

may the text that I write, that I add
line up with the text the Bible is

I want to line my living
as well as my writing up
with your holy word
in this holy whirl


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
7:35 p.m. 26/may/07


Idols In Jeans

does girl-watching,
does lusting, I wonder,
rob me of blessings from above

my insisting upon blessings
I’m able to pick up here below,
off the earth, along the street

how very greedily my eyes eat
visual feast, after visual feast
how fast my heart beats

does this investment here on earth
cause heaven to be closed to me
when in need of what heaven alone supplies
and I turn or upon my knees
knock and knock and knock

is God suggesting even now
that he knows me not


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
8:36 p.m. 26/5/07

Dirty Ear
for E.C.

some dutty noise,
some duttiness,
some dutty mess
always dirtying the atmosphere
in the ghetto

some people in a gathering,
in a group
wherever they are
wherever they go
without education
without moral principles

self-centred instead of
loving their neighbour as themselves
would create ghetto
wherever they stand
or sleep or sit

wherever they go
wherever they are
no more than a place to shit

what am I doing among them
in prayer, in song
penning psalms
in a strange land


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
7:12 p.m. 25/may07

Hands Enough To Lift Me Up

great big following
as has Michael Jackson
or Stevie Wonder

I’d not need to lean upon anyone heavily
were my books as delicious
to as many as these men’s/
such men’s music

my need is a larger circle of followers, of fans

to thee I pray oh Lord for men/
for fish to buy, to bite
what’s sweet on my line

tidbits of verse, of words, of wisdom

aren’t people around the globe
dying daily, hourly
for the oxygen in these poems
I breathe life into


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
11:08 a.m. 25/may/07

Pass the Collection Plate

preachers able to take up collection
why can’t poets

his sermon, her sermon, just as sweet
able also to save souls


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
10:52 a.m. 25/may/07

Hooves On Roofs
for Sonia Isaacs

pissed off at me
asking for money

thought her words tongue ’n cheek
but telling me off without smiling a squeak

streak of lightning instead
she desires to strike

a writer a beggar in Bahama Land
her implication is
I should have more pride
but words are without worth here
word art, literary arts

should I head for Canada
Australia or England
dignity to restore

leave this archipelago
a little less rich
a little poorer for words

try to live artistically pure
and poor poor poor
until the purple sun
covers the land

until words have worth
and manna falls like hoarfrost
upon house tops


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
6:15 a.m. 25/may/07

Coca Plums
for Heather

lost as a puppy without inspiration
without who is able to locate me
like a surveyor's able to locate land
put four stakes down

between what lines of latitude and longitude
upon this spinning globe
do I belong, can I call home

my square and yours, do these overlap
are they one and the same or are we neighbours

in one same country
on land or at sea
some quick sand, some beach
wetlands with interesting plant and animal species

where is Eden on this earth, I wonder
to be found or recreated

two naked people in it, blissfully happy
at least until the fall of man

is a ladder to the moon required
to get back to Eden
back to a diet of fruits
this time careful not to pick what we shouldn't

dillies and mangoes and guavas and coca plums
to eat til thy kingdom come
til thy kingdom came
is this enticing

or do you prefer the smell of Kentucky

© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
10:53 p.m. 24/may/07

Bitter About This

people in the ghetto
insist upon entertaining
who does not wish to be entertained

poverty of their limited awareness
all up in your senses
like a foul smell

what they think is music and amplify
is mess

I wish they would flush it
instead of serving it up,
serving it to who has not ordered it –
does not wish it

wish they would keep it
entirely to themselves

suffocate on it, choke on what
they seem to love so much

muck I detest


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
7:49 p.m. 23/may/07

Swinging In Africa

out of place here, out of place hair
in vogue in Africa, way I wear my beard

bushes full of cheetahs, monkeys, chimpanzees


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
7:15 p.m. 17/may/07


Pearly Gates

pearls before swine
I fling

like bowling balls, let them roll
I have plenty pearls to spare

like leaves in autumn
which fall from trees

like flower petals,
dropping similarly
for passers-by to walk upon
to trample in mud

© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
7:19 p.m. 17/may/07

on Bus 19 poem 1

faith is what you pull for
what you pull up, fish on your line

at times seaweed or tire
old shoe or coconut bark

instead of snapper or grouper


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
6:52 p.m. 18/5/07


on Bus 19 poem 2

worship loud
as if God were not near

as if, because old,
he couldn't hear
whispered prayer


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
6:59 p.m. 18/may/07


Facing the Mirror

die you must
the rule's the same for all of us
kick and fuss all you will,
the pill's the same
the games we play
will end in dust

hooves of horses kick it up
as they gallop


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
8:08 p.m. 18/may/07

fire off fun
fire of fun we light to delight in
to dance about

Indians in summer, dancing for rain

soldiers at the foot of the cross
dicing for silver, for the clothes of Christ

what would she look like, be like naked,
with me across her

I'd have to be careful not to crush her
not to crush her rose petals

petals of roses to pick up,
to sweep up after a wedding ceremony


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
6:08 p.m. 16/may/07

Angel

only ship in the harbor,
were I able, I’d pick it up,
offer it to her for her kindness

light in her heart, light in her eyes

who do I give what though
for making her lovely, priceless
for allowing us to meet


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
7:02 p.m. 27/april/07


Spitting Straight Pins

dream them up

in the nick of time wake up,
get up, leave them behind
in a fix, in a mess, in a net

all the monsters you could think up,
dream up, dream of

unable to haunt you after that,
after all

no threat at all when they’re in a net
and you’re awake and gone


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
6/may/07 12:23 p.m.

Edenic Leaves
for Michael Edwards

once the fingerprints of God alone
were upon creation

these, some desire to erase entirely
to replace these with
the footprints of man


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
10:20 p.m. 4/may/07