Laying It Down

I have had a lot of aunties in my life.  In this lovely land of my birth and in my generation children were taught to call all older women, with whom the family/relatives were close 'auntie'.

I have no children, only 1 nephew and now I hear a grand-nephew, both of whom I do not know. 

The rain, tap, tap. Tapping on the earth  brought back memories of your lips touch, touch, kisses on my back   in the coolness of morning air as I inhaled deeply of the rain, tap, tap.  Tapping on the earth  While we lay snuggled in the sheets. Those were the good ole days Of maybes and yes Fond remembrances.

Hurried off to the supermarket this morning and found it packed like a sardine can!  The man standing behind me in the line commented on the length of the lines wending their way forward at every cashier, as time wasted.  While I agreed that the lines were indeed long, I also commented that it was a good way to have a chat and make quick friends.  And so it began. 

As I am cleaning up, poking through things, figuring out what to keep, changing my idea of what is precious and just dumping, I am finding a lot of my writings.  It seems that somewhere along the line I began trying my hand at haiku.  As you know traditionally haiku is written in  17 'on', (the Japanese word for its phonetic sounds) ( I call this meter) of  of 5 7 5  and has a seasonal reference i.e. it speaks to things of nature.

As I draw near to my gate, tongue near hanging out like a dog’s from the heat, a woman stops me to kindly ask if I would take part in a survey.  Leaning on the gate, I assent and proceed to give her my age.  She is astonished and told me that she was pulling out the questionnaire that relates to those in the 35-44 age group!   Okay, I tell her with a smile.  She made me feel pretty.

Apart from being very depressed due to my lack of unemployment for more than 3 years I am also quite bewildered and very lonely.  My bewilderment comes about because not having a job is anathema to everything I’ve been brought up to believe as truth!

This year I got a bit involved in assisting a neighbour prepare her kids for school.  You see I have an old high school friend of who gets together with her other friends and lends support to children whose parents cannot provide all that is needed to begin the school year.

Today I did the wildest thing!  I sat on the other side of the church!

I 'wrote' this poem as I was heading to work one dry season morning, chip, chip, chipping along in the traffic jam.   The backs of receipts work well when you're driving.   It was a period when Trinidad and Tobago was going through a lot of "gang killings" and the atmosphere was tense.  It seems that things have not changed so very much 7 years later. Keep in mind that I write "talking poetry" so they may not read as well.  Perhaps, I'll present this to you guys once again but then I shall tell you what I think. _____________________________________________________

You know this no job, no home, searching for a job, searching for a rental home is exhausting,

Yesterday I got all nostalgic for our Trinidad and Tobago Independence Day.  It was our Jubilee anniversary and the islands were bursting with pride.