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| Volume No. 1 Issue No. 35 - Wednesday, January 15, 2002 |
Sieck La Vie
 by Premier E O Leblanc (1974)
Miss Sabrin sat before her hut contemplating the meaning of life
And what she perceived for us was a sound philosophy.
Wooly hair as white as cotton, her feet shrunken, her palms wrinkled
Her body emaciated to the extreme, but her mind as active as ever.
Her eyes clear and piercing, her teeth strong and evenly lined
Defied any one from realizing , that she was a hundred and five.
She is wondering how life has changed, but yet realizes that life goes like the seasons
Which constantly change but remain constant. Things don�t change! The reasons do.
Nature is the same, rain, lightning, thunder, storm, pleasure, heart-breaks seemingly unbearable
The brilliant light of stars dimmed by clouds, the sun makes his diurnal tour of the Heavens.
Every year trees flower, seeds drop, and again grow into trees
Dew falls in the night to ensure that the trees do not die.
The animals, tame, wild, ferocious, caged, tied or loose in the woods
Deep water fishes, in stony or weedy areas, the birds of the air all observe the same laws.
All men and women are also under the law. Children are born, they grow and die
The children repeat this refrain, all roads lead to the same goal.
When she was young, young women walked naked. Because people were innocent in those days
Today short dresses cause some to shiver, our world today is terrible.
Formerly it was bitter grass and breadfruit, but people were strong, they lived longer
Today it is cheese, table butter and bread. But life is short, it is the recounting that is long.
Formerly people did not talk much, but they were always of good disposition
Today they make sweet vocal sounds more than the Siol
But are as hard-hearted as their mothers.
Every age is the same, yet always different. This mystery man cannot unravel
That started since the days Adam. Neither obeah, flood nor strike can change.
With all her thinking she cannot ignore, the child who is playing in the sand
Taking an oyster shell to bathe, not with water, but with dry sand.
The old woman shivered � something shocked her
Eyes fixed upwards and with folded arms, she discovered a very little light
Beaming deep in the horizon of the heart.
Although so old, so tired, so emaciated, she learned something from the action of the child
She saw her race straining and harassing since creation to this day.
She saw her progenitors�penurious, who traveled before her all the roads
She has traveled and still must travel, chained, thirsty molested and hungry.
She saw her great, great�grandfather, she saw her mother molested and raped
She saw her sisters bear all strain with clenched teeth. They suffered all-they could not say no!
They sowed, ploughed, planted, weeded, reaped. With cold sweat under the midday sun
Their backs naked, their form in a less enviable state. Their sins- their colour which deserved
punishment.
But time like a flooding river scours clean. We now possess the land our parents bled
for.
Today the tables are turned we are our own masters. Our sweat will be for our own advancement.
The old woman perceived all this. She saw herself like a golden bridge joining all her generations
Yet again, like a hoop without an end.
We understand better today than heretofore. We shall work together for mutual progress
The young, the old, the indigent and the sage so that no Dominican shall regret tomorrow.
Let us all for National Day sing, dance, and recite with loud voices
All for each and each for all, so that all Dominicans will always speak
with one voice.
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