The COVID hairstyle

Soon I will be 16 again

with hair to my waist,

16 again, 18 maybe, or 20

when I ran free, surrounded by young suitors,

my school books in my bag

I had things to do , places to go.

I left my hair on the floor of a salon

when my arms were full

a baby on my hip

no time to even run my fingers 

through my hair

Today, at 62, my hair is almost to my waist

I will soon hold my grand daugher on my hip

my school books are long gone, or collecting

dust in the basement 

There are suitors,

but I live with one.

I will soon be free.  

Looking towards retirement

i trudge upstairs now

later and later, with less and less

enthusiasm

trapped in a COVID-19 hell

of our own making, the sweet smell

of burning wood blowing in from the west

we are in a climate hell

of our own making

Seven makes me move my body

in spite of it all

I'll have abs to show for it

In a  year, I hope to bounce up

the stairs to do something cool,

to travel to far off places 

to retire.

Learning Wolof

There is no past, no future, no translation

from the Occident to the my beloved Senegal

The linearity of American money making diffuses into a 

web of give and receive on the streets of Dakar, by necessity.

here we leave them in the streets, needles dangling

from their arms, the stench of alcohol on their breath

There, I heard the call to prayer five times a day.

Sentences are short in Wolof and adjectives

don't exist,  it's just a question of is it done

or not, or what is it, where is it, how is it

the important questions, succinctly stated.

The positive side of being negative

My daughter often told me how negative I am

That hurt.

But I am negative, having never had Covid-19

and I'm positively thrilled

to not have to worry about long term effects

like heart problems and purple toes,

I'll take being a bit hot

knowing every test has been negative

it's good to be negative

positively wonderful

Tabaski

A picture of a slaughtered sheep,

and one of Iba's mom , cooking peacefully as 

a severed sheep's head lolls peacefully by her foot.

They do not think anymore of my Western sensibilities

A sheep in Senegal for Tabaski is an American turkey for Thanksgiving

except we, the Americans, pay a low income

worker to do the slaughtering work.

The Senegalese are low income, there

is no one but them to take on the task

letting the blood run into the ground, casting

intestines into the sea at certain beaches.

The fish and birds celebrate the day after.

Notes:  The Senegalese people dress very beautifully for this very important holiday!