Home

I wrote this as I was editing the format for Africa. It just came to me and i was reminded of Nigeria and how much I miss it. :-)

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Home is heat and humidity
Hot air like a vacuum that sucks out all moisture
Followed by a flitting flirtful breeze

Home is the hot spicy smell of cooked food
Flavours so intense your mouth dissolves
Tastes that command nothing short of gluttony

Home is the tensile climate
Where my skin glows, my hair shines, my nails pop
My body comes into its own

Home is where I find my rhythm
Where I glide gracefully and strut with pride
I dance like the flames of a roaring hungry fire

Home is where my innate style abounds
Head-ties reach for the sky and jewellery glisten from every orifice
Outlandish outfits are de rigueur

Home is where the colours live
Clash in vibrant war and jostle for space in obscure corners
Dictate the roles and functions of day to day life

Home is where the sounds delight
The dialects of my people sing and heady music guides out feet
The hustle and bustle a reverberating hum

Home is where my customs dicate
Where I kneel unselfconsciously in greeting
Serve unbidden with a happy heart and joyful spring

Home is my family
Where my ancestors and the extended fingers of relatives reside
Home is where my heart lies.

Africa

To me, to you, to them.

To Them

Africa is like a rich chocolate cake
Layers upon layers of treasures and resources
A place to plunder and ravage
Nectar a hundred fold sweeter,
Bounty a thousand times greater.
A never ending well of finance, commerce, wealth
Where Ignorance, Illiteracy, Greed and Corruption,
Can be twisted to nefarious advantage.
A dumping ground for all types of rubbish
A ready made test site for any mad scheme and concoction
A luscious hunting ground where “the savages” are the prey
And where religion, ideals and refinement are to be imposed.

To You

Africa is exotic
An adventure.
Of Mangoes and Guavas,
To Zebras and Giraffes
Something new and brave
An alien country.

A place where foreign currency,
Makes you King or Queen for your stay.
A place where everything is available at your beck & call
Where the right accent and skin colour
Elevates you to a different caste,
Earns you the right to preferential treatment
A place where the beggars and urchins are an eyesore
Where the shantytowns and ghettos are crime riddled nests.

A place where the local customs are quaint
But “Yuck! They eat with their hands”.
A place where you marvel at the beauty and luxury of your surroundings
But secretly laugh at the intonations of the owners
Where you recoil at the touch of a local
Yet can buy anyone you want or simply just take it.

A place where you can forget who and what you are.
An escape from the drum and drudge of your daily existence
Your dream holiday/vacation.

To Me

Africa is home
It is the crying woman fraught with worry
Scared her children may not survive the night.
Death lies in the unsheltered bitter night chill
The blistering relentless day sun
The lack of drinkable water
Water that can only be obtained after a 5 mile trek
The unsanitary environment
Incorporating copious diseases and terrible maladies.
It is the prospect of civil war and ethnic cleansing
Of having your neighbours and friends butcher you in a senseless genocide
Having your leaders plunder your strength, your pride, your work, your life.

For me, Africa is that shrivelled old woman
Stooped with age and the lines to show for it
With the baggage she’s forced to lug about
The ever continuous struggle
Despite all odds, the refusal to give up hope
The belief that she will make it to the other side
The land of peace, of joy, of the plentiful
That all will work out well in the end
Because it simply has to.

You Made My Heart Smile

Basically, you made my heart smile.

We used to chat for ages on the phone
With one word, you could always tell how I felt
You always knew when I was upset
Or if something was bothering me.

You always made me laugh
You delighted me with your insightfulness
Stirred up my intellectual thoughts as we debated different points,
Sometimes for hours on end.

I still think of you whenever I watch a movie
I remember how you always like movies that start immediately
(No gimmicks or intros)
I remember how looking at you took my breath away
And how much I loved (love) your dimples.

You got me
You understood me
You always knew the right thing to say
And exactly how to give me what I needed

Basically, I miss you.

Skips A Beat

You never fail to get me
Every. Time. :-

You walk into the room
My heart skips a beat

You smile at me
My heart skips a beat

I hear your voice on the phone
My heart skips a beat

I see your name flash up in an email
My heart skips a beat

I hear someone talk about you
My heart skips a beat

We are together
My heart skips a beat

We make eye contact
My heart skips a beat

I catch you staring at me intensely
My heart skips a beat

You bend to kiss me
My heart skips a beat

Every time
I think about you, imagine you, remember you …
My. Heart. Skips. A. Beat

The Best I Ever Had

It was soft,
So soft
His tongue brushed my lip,
Teased the space between.
Unbidden my lips parted
Hot
So hot
The feel of his tongue against mine
The rolling and stroking of his tongue
Against the perimeters of my mouth
Sweet
So sweet
The taste of him
Deeper and deeper
The kiss continued
My hands caressing the nape of his head
Drawing him even closer
Loss
Oh dear loss
As our lips draw apart reluctantly
Wow
He literally took my breath away.
My eyes flutter open seconds later
My glazed eyes slowly start to focus again
I see him smiling down at me
Those lips
Those utterly delicious lips
Our eyes connect
And we start all over again.

To My Not Least Favourite Person

Being with you, around you, in your presence,
I come alive, I sparkle, I shine.
I sound more intelligent, I’m witty, I’m charming.
There’s a skip in my step, a twinkle in my eye, a smile on my lips.
I laugh constantly
I talk non-stop
There’s always something to do.


You elicit the fun, weird, kooky side of me
You also elicit the playful, mischievous, stubborn side of me
People say we argue too much,
I say we spark off each other
I love everything about the way we interact


It’s only when I see you again
That I realise how much I miss you,
And how much I miss me
The person I become when I am around you.

All Over Again

My head feels heavy with unshed tears
My body aches with having to enforce control
I can’t think
I can’t feel
I can’t speak …
For fear of breaking down completely.


My heart is breaking
Try as much as I want
The pieces keep falling away
It’s happening all over again.