Poetry: Kingston Symphony [YOU KNOW TOWN?]

You know Town?
Where every
street is an
instrument
where the
Caribbean
is
counterpoint
where one-time
juke joiunts
now serve jerk
from old drum pans
You know Town?
where Ghetto Gaudi proudly
lines up
alongside
Art Deco
where mansions cling preposterously
to marly hillsides
Town
where
handcarts
pose a danger to
Range Rovers
in the market square

You know Town?
where
pedestrians play
hopscotch
with
vending Autocrats
and
suicide
with ruthless
Automobile
Dissidents

where
outlaws are
Heroes
where inescapable
dub
beats
are carried on cannabis
clouds
from burly mountain ridge
to blanket
the
Creative City
elegant
Aggressive
GrittyUncouth
wistful

Town
where taxi drivers
clutch
fistfuls of
Vital fares

Town
the sum
of all
fears
Nigh on 150
years
and still
Becoming

Politicians preach
its 2nd Coming
But are they really
just
trying
to stave off the
Apocalypse

In the Coke vacuum
long-held
enmities
unleashed

You know town?
its really many little
cities
21st Century
fiefdoms
old time battle and border lines
merely
blurred
partisan words
of
hatred slurred
by intoxicating
Luchre
spent
in myriad bars
drawing wretched and
wealthy alike
in retreat from the ochre
glow of another setting
Sun
And even
now
along the Pelican-fleeced
pier
are gathered
Lovers
and would-be philosophers
seeking meaning
amid the murky
industrial
sludge
silently asserting its
right to be
like
Negro Aroused