TASTERS:

Poems on the Underground
At eight twenty-two on the Monday morning after the weekend that never happened, a distraught Gilda Maryanne Pierre made her way to work in central London.  As she descended the escalators, she readied herself for the scheduled twenty-minute underground train journey from Tottenham Hale to Euston. On the crowded, hot and stuffy station platform, she manoeuvred herself to the spot where she was certain to be next to the window and in the direction of travel. Gilda knew she would have to wait for at least two Victoria Line trains to depart before she could get on because of the number of commuters already ahead of her.  Instead, it took three trains before she was standing at the front of the herd. Like a puffer fish, she tried to expand her five foot six, size twelve frame using her extra large handbag.  She shook her loose dreadlocks from side to side, her way of getting the crowd to back off a little. The light wind from the blacken tunnel to her right was the first sign the train was approaching and Gilda prepared herself for the push.  She was relieved when the train came to a stop and the doors opened, that she had gauged her position exactly right. With practiced stealth she quickly and successfully claimed her rightful place next to the window. In seconds the carriage was full and as the closing doors bleeped a young man squeezed himself inside. His actions triggered a warning from the train driver instructing everyone, ‘please do not obstruct the closing doors.’ For maximum breeze, Gilda lower the window all the way and corralled her hair into a single bunch with a thick hairband.

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Extract from the title story:  Hibiscus and Hummingbirds
... She sways from side to side, her round hips moving in time to the beats – left, right, left right, left, left, right, right – knees slightly bent, she taps her feet. We’re interrupted for the brief late afternoon news. The newscaster announces something to do with the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, her up-coming visit to the West Indies and celebrations in London and across the Commonwealth. There’s one death announcement of an elderly woman who has eight children whose names all begin with Fitz - FitzRoy, FitzAnn, FitzMargaret ...
    The segment returns and not a moment too soon. The DJ makes an announcement. “My peoples I goin’ to take de tempo down for de next song cause I know you ladies love dis one. So, lemme hear you sing along.” He introduces the singer of the number one song on the music charts but I don’t recognise the artist. He follows up with the title of the song but I don’t recognise that either. However, when the first notes fill the air, I immediately recognise it. So does the young woman. She screams and starts singing, “lah lah, lah, lah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah”, ahead of the lyrics. I scream too, but of course, not as loud as  her. For the second time I disobey my father. I can’t help myself, it’s my new favourite song.  I climb out of the Land Rover, clambering over the back door, carefully so not to rip my school uniform, and jump to the ground. In this moment, I don’t care what will happen to me if daddy finds out. I throw my hands above my head and try to replicate the earlier dance moves of the young woman. I look over to see if she’s going to accompany me for this dance. But to my disappointment, she drops the pastel pink bedsheet covered in hibiscus and hummingbirds prints she was about to hang into a large pink plastic tub. Swinging her hips, she wiggles her way into the house, through the front porch, singing at the top of her lungs.
   “When I need love, I just close my eyes and I’m with you, and
all that I so wanna give you, it's only a heartbeat away."
    The DJ’s teases his listeners. He stops the song just before the chorus. “Come on ladies I can't hear you,” he bellows over the air waves. I can hear her singing, from inside the house. She starts the chorus, just ahead of the radio.
“When I need love, I hold out my hand, and I touch love”.
   She stops, no doubt realising the DJ has stopped the song. I hear her scream, “aaaaahhh”. As if hearing her, he restarts the song. The volume of the radio, in the house across the road, increases by a few more decibels. The DJ allows the song to play but just before the end, he interrupts again. “Reeeeewind! I goin' give it to you again cause I know you liiiiike it.”
(con't)

Extract from the story entitled:    The half-naked man in the bushes
      Toni curled up at the very top of her bed in the foetal position. Still no tears came. Only one thought went through her mind. Her father. When he found out he was going to kill her. Strangely Toni welcomed the thought of death. When her mother finished praying, she sat with her eyes closed, brows furrowed and breathed in shallow gasps, occasionally taking long deep breaths to replenish her unsatisfied lungs. Finally, she stood up and matched Toni, still panty-less, through the living room to the bathroom. The clock on the wall said five thirty-five but the glow from the kerosene lamp, on the shelf, was already losing its battle with the lightening sky. Under a cold shower, Toni was scrubbed with laundry soap and Dettol.   
   But Toni’s humiliation and shame was not over. A few hours later her mother walked her to her grandmother’s house. It was the longest ten minute walk shei had ever walked. On arrival at the four-room house she was led into one of the two bedrooms. The smell of lit candles and incense filled the darken room. Toni was made to kneel in the middle of a circle of women. No one talked to her or asked her any questions. All she got was tutting of teeth and the slow shaking of heads. The women pressed oiled hands on her head. They prayed and spoke in tongues to exorcise the demons of sex and depravity that had processed her.  Still, Toni didn’t cry. After the praying was over, she was again stripped naked and washed from head to toe in a large metal tub of lavender oil, herbs and leaves. When the women were satisfied that the evil had been exorcised, Toni's grandmother anointed her with warm scented oil and her put into bed.  In the comforting bed, covered in printed hibiscus and hummingbirds cotton bedsheets and pillowcases, Toni fell into a deep sleep. She dreamt of a woman she didn’t know, a faceless woman who cradled Toni in her arms and gently rocked her.
(con't)