À l’heure du tout à l’image et du buzz sans suite, «l’express» souhaite faire découvrir la plume de poètes, de chanteurs, d’écrivains et de tous ceux qui jettent leur âme sur le papier, et qui mettent en mots des réflexions profondes.

The «First Extinction» of the island was the loss of the Dodo

– a symbol of innocence lost to external forces. This «Second

Extinction» is internal and chemical. By invoking the sacrifice

of our ancestors – those who preferred a fatal leap from a

mountain over a life in chains –, the poem asks a haunting

question: if our forefathers fought so hard for our breath and our

liberty, why are we now surrendering it to the «simik» tide?

Turning and trembling in the foggy smoke, the youth ignores the mother’s lamenting cry;

The family falls apart; the plague of synthetic is loosed upon the isle. The «simik» tide is high,

And the youthful ambition is drowned; law has fallen overboard while greed and power sail smoothly.

Surely some retribution is at hand; surely the second extinction

is at hand. Extinction! No sooner uttered than some images of

the slaves and Girmityas flash in front of my eyes: sweating in

the cane fields, burning under the sun, breaking rocks and tilling

the soil… kicked by the colonial masters.

They watered this land with their blood. The wind whispers;

for now, I see the truth; their sacrifice went in vain.

They chose death over slavery, jumped from the jagged height

of Le Morne; they snatched their freedom from the whips…and

today, their sons surrender to chemical despair.

Their skin cracked, but they kept their spirit bright, they

sacrificed for their heir to walk with their head high

Breathing in liberty… but today they lie on streets, scattered…

out of their senses.

The dealers, like desperate invaders, prowl on the streets;

First went the dodo, now, the island’s sons;

The chemical waves wash over the toiled land

Dragging the people in the ocean of despair.

Bio

Namrata Daumoo Aukhojee

An English educator with 16 years of teaching experience, she serves as the MES English speaking test coordinator and is a national coordinator for Model United Nations.