Retrospection
We
used to dine at that small cafe just outside Chitungwiza
We
had our favorite spot at the back
2
wooden chairs and a table with a wiggle
There
was that waitress you fancied; tiny waist, big eyes and a smile like water
Every
time she would serve us the one meal on the menu
Sadza,
bathed in a pool of soup and some lean strips of chicken
And
you almost didn't see the chicken till really dug in
And
every Friday night it was like that
Then
there were days along 1st Street
Peeping
through the tall glass windows of furniture shops
The
endless debates on what would fit where in the derelict hovel we rented in Unit
B
A
packet of maputi shuttling between our hands all the while
And
it was you who would always finish it off…
(Of
course, you wanted the nuts at the bottom of the packet)
I
remember the stories we shared...the lewd jokes you always threw in-between
I
always talked about the future, and you always listened like an overzealous
schoolboy
Each
time your girlfriend dumbed you, you would call
I
would show up with a bottle of cheap whiskey
Ready
to drown your sorrows six shots under
Thereafter,
I would listen to you curse on end
And
we always agreed that this was a requisite immorality
Today,
I play Russian roulette with the memories of you
Betting
on the one that's bound to make me cry
I
laugh at that; see, they are just old thoughts
Perhaps
outstaying their welcome
But
why do I feel the urge to cry at that?
I'm
sitting in the old Beetle, stuck in Friday's traffic jam
There
is a song issuing from the stereo
Toto's
Hold the line
I
recall how we used to 'chop' the lyrics
Yet
we sang our hearts whenever the old codger next door played it on his acoustic
gramophone
It
hurts me now that all I am left with are the memories
And
a dead stereo you left in my apartment
So
I miss you dearly, painfully still
I
wish you were around
So
that I could tell you I found a girl to marry
And
that would be something to drink to
For
old times' sake
Chitungwiza ("Chi Town") is about 30 Km from Harare, Zimbabwe. It is the country's 3rd largest city, even though it only came into existence in the late 1970s. Sadza is a cornmeal porridge, though it may also be made from millet or sorghum or other flours or mixed with cassava flour. It is cooked in boiling water or milk until it attains a dough-like consistency. Maputi is a roasted corn snack.
ReplyDeleteRussian roulette is named after the 19th-century practice of Russian guards putting a single bullet in a pistol and forcing inmates to pull the trigger, betting on each outcome. However, the term was coined by Georges Arthur Surdez, a Swiss-American writer of pulp fiction. His short story "Russian Roulette," a tale about French Foreign Legionnaires in North Africa, appeared in "Collier's Illustrated weekly" in January 1937, reporting that the player would “suddenly pull out his revolver, anywhere, at the table, in a café, at a gathering of friends, remove a cartridge from the cylinder, spin the cylinder, snap it back in place, put it to his head, and pull the trigger. There were five chances to one that the hammer would set off a live cartridge and blow his brains all over the place. Sometimes it happened, sometimes not. When it did, there was nothing more to be said or done; when it didn’t, the fellow waited another day.” He also described the more usual variant, in which all the chambers are empty except one. The story was reprinted in May in the "Fiction Parade & Golden Book Magazine." Eight months later in Austin, Texas, a young man shot himself playing the game on his 21st birthday, becoming the 1st of over 1,000 American casualties of the sport.
Toto was a group of Los Angeles session musicians formed by David Paich and Jeff Porcaro in 1976. In order to keep his own demo tapes from getting mixed up with others he was recording, he marked them as "Toto," a comic reference to the dog in "the Wizard of Oz." In 1976, after they had recorded their 1st album, their band was still unnamed, and bassist David Hungate suggested they name themselves after the name on the demos. Their 1st single was Paich's "Hold the Line":
ReplyDeleteIt's not in the way that you hold me
It's not in the way you say you care
It's not in the way you've been treating my friends
It's not in the way that you stayed till the end
It's not in the way you look or the things that you say that you'll do
Hold the line, love isn't always on time, oh oh oh
Hold the line, love isn't always on time, oh oh oh
It's not in the words that you told me, girl
It's not in the way you say you're mine, ooh
It's not in the way that you came back to me
It's not in the way that your love set me free
It's not in the way you look or the things that you say that you'll do
Hold the line, love isn't always on time, oh oh oh
Hold the line, love isn't always on time, oh oh oh
It's not in the words that you told me
It's not in the way you say you're mine, ooh
It's not in the way that you came back to me
It's not in the way that your love set me free
It's not in the way you look or the things that you say that you'll do
Hold the line, love isn't always on time, oh oh oh
Hold the line, love isn't always on time (Love isn't always on time)
Hold the line, love isn't always on time (love isn't always, love isn't always on time)
Hold the line, love isn't always on time
Love isn't always on time
Love isn't always on time
Love isn't always on time, oh oh oh