Robert@PNG

The intensity
builds…
Sing-sing,
bilas,
and gatherings. 

Yes – plenty of
gatherings,
Street corners,
Homes,
And campaign houses. 

All hope,
All trust,
All wish,
For better
leadership.
 
Trucks and buses
Filled to the brim,
Pumping out messages,
Candidates desperate for a vote. 

Cash hand outs,
And promises.
More cash,
And of course – more promises. 

PNG Elections,
Once every five years.
Whose turn will it now be?
To milk the honey pot? 

Posters everywhere,
Crowds gather to look
A campaign car drives past
Loyalties are already set. 

For the clan will vote as one,
The elders will decide.
Poor sod who decides
To exercise choice. 

A circus some call it.
Intensity prevails,
The energy builds
And builds and builds. 

The hope of a better future
Is shattered yet again
For people everywhere
Have become slaves and puppets. 

Money rules,
And where there’s money
There’s power
And despair. 

The answer for Papua
New Guinea?
Time.
Generations of it.
And then only… perhaps.