OUR PANS ARE WEEPING

Posted By: Jesse Andrews
Date: Monday, 24 March 2003, at 9:02 p.m.

OUR PANS ARE WEEPING
by
Jesse Andrews (Pan poet)

While we Trinidadians feteing
Our pans are weeping
Exploited by greedy vultures
And so year after year
At the pan fair
Parasites feed on the steelpan culture

They exploit and abuse
Then fill the pans with refuse
Tantanan egg burning dem big men eyes
Like thieves in the dark
They on top steelpan back
The cows grazing wherever they get tie

Hoping fans would care
Our pans huddle in fear
Screaming rape on a Savannah stage
They bawl and moan
Flogged to the bone
Beaten tone-less by sticks in a rage

With a Northstand vision
And a rum talk wisdom
Pan lovers say, "pan sweeter than ever!"
While for personal gain
Opportunists racking their brains
Throwing pan's future into helter-skelter

Then out of pan's mouth
A sobbing bass pan shout
Put your culture before fortune and fame
For steelpan is a culture
With a spiritual nature
And blessed are the disciples of the steelpan name.

(From the book: "Port-of-Pan" by Jesse Andrews)