HUSH, HUSH SHADOWS IN THE SUN

by Louisa Calio    

                          In memory of Barry Dixon, MD    

Renowned Obstetric Gynecologist, Dr Barry Dixon, succumbed to injuries he sustained after he was shot by gunmen at his Spring Gardens home in St James this morning, Sept. 1,2012.  The former Senior Medical Officer of the Cornwall Regional Hospital who served in that post for some 20 years, was reportedly shot around 1:00am. --The Jamaica Gleaner

So much violence            
Today another is taken by the gun           
And you keep inviting the tourists in.                  

We suffer under the denial           
everyday, everywhere            
there is a dark violence           
under this sun,           
While you keep showing those ads           
of paradise, talking of attractions.           

It wouldn’t hurt so much            
if you would acknowledge the pain,           
deal with it head on           
another doctor killed again           
another Jamaican returns from England           
is shadowed and shot           
another clerk murdered           
the country’s anguish,             
women raped,           
children molested.           
Ignored again           
you say speaking or acting would interfere           
with commerce and industry.                       

This violence seems a contagion            
that grabs around the neck           
like a noose           
or a pair of man’s hands going           
straight for the jugular          
 cutting off the life force of a nation            
with a steady  voice that whispers low           
“shh, shh,” say nothing           
But fear will only make the problem grow.


Louisa Calio, Director of the Poets’ and Writers’ Piazza for Hofstra’s Italian Experience for the past 10 years, is an internationally published author and award winning writer: Winner of the 1978 Connecticut Commission of the Arts Award to individual writers, Barbara Jones and Taliesin Prizes for Poetry (Trinidad & Tobago) Educational Center for the Arts grant for In the Eye of Balance a multimedia production of her first book, Women in Leadership Award (1987) and mostly recently honored with Alice Walker, Gloria Steinem and other “Feminists who changed America(1963-76)” at Columbia/Barnard. Co-founder and first Executive Director of City Spirit Artists, Inc. a non profit arts organization in New Haven, Ct. dedicated to making the arts available to all members of society, she recently exhibited her photos with poems in “A Passion for Africa” and “A Passion for Jamaica” at the renowned Round Hill Resort in Jamaica, West Indies. She has frequently traveled to Africa and Jamaica  inspired by nature and the cultures there.
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