guarding the botanic

guarding botanic gardens

Grey haired Ali worked hard
as a police, not a real one- an estate warden
attached to the Ministry of Agriculture
Land and Fisheries. Guarding adjacent
Governor General’s stone house
the Botanic Gardens. Here on Sundays

Supt. Fitzroy Prospect since
graduating in England conducted
the police band. Classic renditions
in Victorian bandstand. Shadowed
by Ali, in his worn but neatly pressed
khaki uniform. Propping up the old
iron gate, his trousers was long
unlike normal police, his hat like a captain
a strange badge with the queen’s
crown. Polite was he

pleasant disposition.

Never knew at an early age,
his Arabic name meant
“ of high station” so we teased
his sons at our school. Jeering
poverty of their home. Two jobs

selling us curry and guarding
botanic gardens astride
Government’s Raleigh bicycle…
Only in adulthood understanding
he was a widower an’ single father
to seven

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