A Government Held Hostage Poem by Sookdeo Manansingh

In the afternoon while the parliament was in session
a loud explosion could be heard at the police
headquarters in the city
the television station was taken captive
and simultaneously terrorists made their
way inside where important debates
were made in the interest of the nation

Soon after the television screen was tuned in
to a live broadcast that the island had been seized
while part so the city were shown on fire
coming from the police headquarters
over one hundred masked men stormed
the red house and disrupted
the business of the day
the lead terrorist began to speak on
the station and said that the government
was held at gunpoint and no one
could come outside

At the time thirty six member of parliaments
were forced to lie on the ground and surrender
to the demands of the terrorists
for seventy-two hours no one was allowed
to leave the building and the police
had no choice but to allow the terrorist demands
to bare light for the nation to respond

when the terrorist realized that they
had no where to go
they soon surrendered their weapons
and gave way to the police to have
it their way
during the ordeal a few innocent lives
were lost including policemen on duty at the time
and some innocent civilians

Fortunately no parliamentarian were harmed
except for their moment during the time of captivity
A lot of time was spent negotiating with the
terrorists for a plot of land they were occupying
at the time which the government believed
was falsely acquired and their were insufficient
reason to believe that their occupancy was
legally justified

A twin island state with just over 1.3 million people
comprising white, black and colored citizens.
A small nation born out of colonialism
where slavery and indentureship was
forced upon a society once ruled
under the British
The country had not to long gained
its independence and the law of the land
had insufficient evidence to support
their claim

After due consideration the terrorists
had to serve some time in prison
while the government had no choice
but to allow the land in dispute
to be retuned to the terrorist
since it was part of the agreement
that was agreed upon to resolve the
situation at the time.