"West Indies U.S.A"by Stewart Brown.
West Indies, USA Cruising at thirty thousand feet above the endless green the islands seem like dice tossed on a casino’s baize, some come up lucky, others not. Puerto Rico takes the pot, the Dallas of the West Indies, silver linings on the clouds as we descend are hall-marked, San Juan glitters like a maverick’s gold ring. All across the Caribbean we’d collected terminals – airports are like calling cards, cultural fingermarks; the hand-written signs at Port- au-Prince, Piarco’s sleazy tourist art, the lethargic contempt of the baggage boys at ‘Vere Bird’ in St. Johns... And now for plush San Juan. But the pilot’s bland, you’re safe in my hands drawl crackles as we land, “US regulations demand all passengers not disembarking at San Juan stay on the plane, I repeat, stay on the plane.” Subtle Uncle Sam, afraid too many desperate blacks might re-enslave this Island of the free, might jump the barbed electric fence around ‘America’s back yard’ and claim that vaunted sanctuary... ‘Give me your poor...’ Through toughened, tinted glass the contrasts tantalise; US patrol cars glide across the shimmering tarmac, containered baggage trucks unload with fierce efficiency. So soon we’re climbing, low above the pulsing city streets; galvanised shanties overseen by condominiums polished Cadillacs shimmying past Rastas with pushcarts and as we climb, San Juan’s fool’s glitter calls to mind the shattered innards of a TV set that’s fallen off the back of a lorry, all painted valves and circuits the roads like twisted wires, the bright cars, micro-chips It’s sharp and jagged and dangerous, and belonged to someone else.
- Stewart Brown
What can be understood
In the Poem West Indies U.S.A seen above above the poet is located thirty thousand feet above the ground in an air plane. He is observing the view of islands from his widow and asseses them each based on what he perceives joint with experiences . Brown is Mainly captivated by the sight of Puerto Rico evident in line three where he says "Puerto Rico takes the 'pot'," this statement being short for jackpot or an inference to pot of gold. As he views it as the USA of the West Indies hence the title . The poet goes on to Critique all the islands that he views based on his knowledge and contrasts them to the simple beauty that camoflages the from Its flaws. The poet came to the realization that what he saw from the airplane was just an anomaly.
What do I think ?.......
