Overseas Love - For Reinaldo Arenas Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

That child with the round dirty face
Is always at my side in the street
As I walk to my air-conditioned office
Where I make plans for his better future.

He thinks me naive and easily inveigled:
But for me he is a temporary nuisance
As I engage in geopolitical engineering
All to his best interest.

Believe me, I know what is good for him:
I am an expat expert in development planning
And can recall theories, run models
And recount and apply my experience.

It's all very well young man asking for change,
I know you would prefer to steal my wallet:
I will not accompany you that's for sure
There is a kind of knowing evil to your smile.

Go back to your cardboard square on the pavement
Or to the thatched bough shed that's home
While I calculate how many days are left
To my assignment and what I am saving.

You are dirty and untrustworthy
And knowing you too well
Could raise a host of insanitary horrors -
Threatening even restricted camaraderie.

My work is for the long-term good
And little point is served in more than a ‘hi'
And an occasional purchase of your chewing gum:
I bought your sister drinks last night.

The future is looking bright my little friend
There will be irrigation and factories:
And who knows, if you become a poet
You can write your vengeance.