NOW, I DON'T KNOW HOW I CAN GO      RGAaPoet@aol.com

                              (For Ned Mullan)

                 Of course, I used to think that I'd return
                 To paradise, on earth, to end my days....
                 Now, I don't know how I can go
                 Back to Saint Lucia, for pot's pale lights burn
                 My old savannas ... where hope now decays....

                 I used to think, one day, things here that bind,
                 Yet set such sorrows free, would send me back!
                 Now, I don't know how I can go
                 Back to these places lurking in my mind --
                 They now set sorrows free, all bound in crack....

                 I used to think, for a less bitter life,
                 The Caribbean's sun would lure me home.
                 Now, I don't know how I can go;
                 For one now finds, down there, the sorry strife --
                 The very problems which engulf this Rome....

                 I used to think that constant needs for pity --
                 For man's degraded souls -- would drive me there.
                 Now, I don't know how I can go
                 From this degrading place to my birth city.
                 Now those degrading traits are everywhere....

                 I used to think, at last, bereft of mirth,
                 I'd hunger for my home, where joys ran free!
                 Now, I don't know how I can go
                 Back to Saint Lucia -- paradise on earth! --
                 For all those problems here have crossed the sea....




                                 09/28/1997

                 Copyright (c) 1997 by Ronald G. Auguste