The road make to walk,
On Carnival day

Lord Kitchener, “The Road Make To Walk”, 1963

I wonder if Kitchie ever sang, “The wall make to wine...”

Carnival in Trinidad is a time of pure, reckless abandon, with a seemingly special emphasis on reckless. Especially on J'Ouvert morning — the official opening of Carnival festivities. J'Ouvert celebrations are typified by bands of mud or paint-drenched revellers roaming the streets of the city in the wee hours of the morning, dancing and wining on... well, on just about everything imaginable. Including, to the dismay of countless downtown property owners, walls!

Yes, come daybreak on Carnival Monday morning it is a fact of life that if you own a property in Port of Spain, the paint job on your walls will almost certainly have been blessed with a fresh layer of highly individualised, and totally unsolicited adornment.

Some prepare for this inevitability by pre-purchasing a couple cans of paint to undo the artistic liberties, while others seem quite content, or at least reservedly resigned to accept the new look.

This piece of handiwork — not just handiwork by the looks of it — suggests the latter, as it was found in August, a full six months after this year's celebrations. I'll leave the mechanics of this creation to your imagination.

I wonder what Mr. Rorschach would think.