The Happiness Report ~ D.B.Redpath

The ‘Happiness Report’
from the pagan haven
of a gated resort
Machine tooled
from a block of concrete
Then deposited upon
a mangrove swamp
along a once pristine coast
Now a checkpoint
and a guard tower
The lungs of nature
dying …
of tourist cancer

The Armada Piranha
is docking
The beggars are begging
Poverty’s children
smiling and waving
at the old slave port
Guns in the sun glistening
The muscle bulging
of an armed escort
for the affluent
swimming in effluent
With their sparkling hoard
and their devouring brood
all on board
the shuttle bus El Gringo
A seafood of greed
that cult of stolen cargo
From diamonds of blood
to a eulogy
of white ivory
A black market fiasco
Nothing cocaines
the profit margins
like a prohibitive embargo
The primate destructive
at a carnival sideshow
In the bliss of ignorance
evil hides and thrives
at “The Festival of Happiness”
with the Mother of all Sorrow

Suntan lotion
Carbolic acid
Dead coral broken
Crafts of pleasure
Fossil fuel
upon living water
Dredged . . .
the oceans deep
Felled . . .
a forest lost
Mother Nature
now a shadow
being put to sleep
All for a culture
of the broken shallow
Like sheep
bred, fed, and led
on a group tour
to the slaughter
Kiss goodbye
yellow fin tuna
The blue fin
soon to follow
Perish the thought
with no thought
for tomorrow
In pursuit of strange danger
A plastic curse
upon your water sports
flowing from an open bar
at Hotel El Burro
Pobreza espiritual
Los niños la pobreza

A state of police
and broken rites
Lese Majesté
“The Festival
of Returning Happiness”
declaring an end
to civil unrest
with the flying of big kites
When wealth
and privilege whispers
a military junta dictates
It’s corporate sponsor
and big time donor
with fear for ears
always listening
No leaders of protest
left amongst the living
Their children dispossessed
by the sons of private beaches
in a land bled dry
The wild colonial boys
of an industrial revolution
on a summer holiday high
like sea turtles returning
from oceans blue
to golden shores
for a buffet breakfast
after much drunken
and anonymous spawning
Safe now for honoured guests
of the high maintenance west
to resume their vacationing
Come walk upon hibiscus petals
like comic strip deities
with super powers
Come harvest our lotus flowers

Gasoline
in whisky bottles
Two wheel scooting
Street dealers chasing
“Viaga, Señor … or
perhaps something harder?”
Like a dose
of refugee living
A golden temple
of demolition rubble
The dragon flying
over an open sewer
of tropical trouble
The destruction pure
following bad advice
Ruins of paradise
a global choice
of invested western vice

Always there’s trouble
down near the border
The powder keg
forcing a spark
Nurses shot dead
on their way to work
And dare not educate
your shrouded daughter
Innocence taken captive
and kept helpless
in the dark
A religion of disorder
where a woman
is just a possession
to the patriarch possessive
and tribal aggressive
No honour in the killing
casting the first stone
Nor in the submission
to divisive division
Hollow pride
how many have died
saving face?

Lost children
of gods fallen
and forgotten grace
out of time
and out of place
Acid rain in the brain
and a soul down the drain
All the truths
Of this world
adding up
to one big lie
A stratosphere of bullshit
between you
and a clear blue sky
Tourista Fashionista
doing just fine
The question
you need to ask yourself
Is your tourist dollar
funding . . .
a state of crime?
Pobreza espiritual
Los niños la pobreza

The ‘Report of Happiness’
from a free range anthropologist
upon a Quest Majesté;
God will restore the whole earth
and give it to his messy
carbon based children
… as an inheritance.

~ david redpath © 2018

Photography:
david redpath © 2018

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For more of David’s work, please visit:  Highway Bloggery