Monday, 20 January 2014

No, not ordinary

The winter frost snow caps the cars

Dark puddles litter the car park potholes

Last year’s Harmattan seems a world away.

 

M&S dressed ladies meet for tea and scones

Mothers wheel their kids for pizza and Big Macs

Last year’s suya fires my taste buds.

 

Pedestrians stroll safely in the Thoroughfare to shop

Streaming from politely parked cars siphoned from bypassing traffic

Last year’s ocados still squirm between my legs.

 

Blue jeans, black coat, head bowed she trudges off to the Co-op

Blue jeans, black jacket, head bowed he heads off to the pub

Last year’s proud, flaming scarlet abaya still floats with effortless elegance across the Ahmadu Bello Highway .

 

Last year’s Afrobeat has hip hopped to minimalist Glass

Hot coal grilled Croacker has mueted to deep fried Haddock and chips

Last year’s Oyibo’s tan has faded, paled without whiteners

Shaping up the chrysalis of next year’s me.

 

Word of explanation:

Harmattan  - seasonal cold, dry, dusty West African trade wind blowing from the Sahara to the Gulf of Guinea between November and March

Suya – street food, somewhat like a kebab, flattened meat on a skewer, well seasons with chilli

Ocado – a motor cycle taxi

Abaya – a woman’s full length gown in Saudi Arabia, but here used with some poetic license applied to a full length, but more fitted but still loose and flowing Kaftan-like ladies riga or gown

Ahmadu Bello Way – a busy major road in Abuja, Nigeria

Croacker    - Pseudotolithus senegalensis (Cassava croaker) is a white sea fish commonly grilled over open fires with hot spices all over Nigeria and much of West Africa.

Oyibo – Non-derogatory, Nigerian slang for a white person

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