I’ve hit a rough patch. Hell, we’ve hit a rough patch. Well, maybe not Wry-ly who seems beyond it all, but BushDiva and I have resorted to a kind of quiet desperation around food. I’d like to blame Wry-ly’s composure on the reality that she’ll be heading home in about three weeks – but the […]
4am greeted me. Guinea fowl and roosters screaming close by. 4am greeted me and wouldn’t let me sleep. Instead I laid in the darkness, picking out familiar sounds, fixating on unfamiliar ones outside my windows. But the darkness and my closed lids were an exercise in futility and by 5 I’d turned on the lights […]
The moon was full and for a time, hung low in the sky against pink wispy clouds, just out of reach of tall tree standing tall and lonely against the shorter green backdrop that surrounded it. But the moon is seldom still, and it rose in minutes, as if racing the darkness. And it hung […]
I woke up tired. It was still gray outside, early morning cloudy, so I rolled over and slept on. But when sleep would bed me no longer I found myself facing a Saturday with nothing inside it. No plans for the day, no excursion with friends. Instead I curled up with a book (actually three), […]
There were four dead. The branches in the middle of the road told us there was an accident ahead. The number of branches and the distance they spanned before we could actually see the accident told us it was bad. As we inched forward, we noticed a wall of cars in the other lane parked […]
She laughed. Not ha ha laughing, but the laughter of levity – of realizing that crying does no good. Or maybe I just projected that onto her because I can understand how a tired smile and a laugh at the absurdity that six weeks or six months…hell six years…can repair what took thousands of people […]
“I want to touch the earth, I want to beak it in my hands, I want to grow something wild and unruly…” My voice bounced off the water-warped tile and yellowing tub. Slightly off key but beautiful to me because I was singing for no reason. Scrubbing each arm, my stomach, eventually my feet, and […]
We took to Dimples immediately. Something about the broad smile that staked claim to his entire face and the deep dimples standing guard beside it. Yeah, the big smile and the generous laugh that followed almost anything we said or he did, laid a foundation for our budding friendship. Dimples is Liberian born and bred […]
Upon closer inspection I realize that Monrovia isn’t dirty. At least not in the way I had it etched in my mind. There is dirt. The rainy season is ending and dirt – the dried remnants of rivers of mud – lines the street and abuts curbs. But this morning, I noticed that people had […]
My pe kin
“My pe kin.” Gutz is always calling into the distance, “My pe kin,” as he fishes in his pocket for money or finishes a meal that requires the plate be taken in. My pe kin (I very well may be spelling that wrong) and the female equivilant, “small girl“, are bestowed “generously” on any child […]
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