1bigblackblog

THE LATE WEE HOURS


this is the story

or rather it is the story as told to me by mom

and with the blessing of god i will be able to tell it

to you so that you can know it as i do

my mom and younger brother and mother were living
in manhattan on ninety ninth street. her dad who was
from the carribean and had the bearing of a charismatic
african chief was relaxing in sing sing. if life had been
different he would have been king mambo, father of the
nation, or at least first executive senior minister of airports
and harbors. an excellent position

mom's mom was from panama and very beautiful and
worked in what today is called a sweatshop. at that time
if you had a job that kept a roof over your head and put
food on the table and clothing on your family's back it
was called a blessing from god and you put a little extra
in the collection plate at church in return

it was saturday morning and mom and brother are in
the kitchen arguing " you did it ! no i didn't ! yes you did !
no i didn't !" and the next thing you know there is a fight
and a cup of coffee is knocked over and pours from the
kitchen table onto the floor. my mom's mom is very
unhappy. she yells and slaps them and says they had
better not leave the apartment while she's at work

mom had planned to meet her friends at the savoy
ballroom that evening. so a couple of hours after her
mom left she did her hair and changed her clothes and
walked towards the door to leave. her brother ran to
block the door " you can't leave ! i'm telling ! you can't
leave !" mom said she looked at the floor then " pow !"
right into his left eye and he fell and she opened the
door ran up the hallway and down the stairs and out
on to the street and made her way to the savoy

the show was a battle of the bands of the count and the
duke. she told me basie wore a powder blue pin striped
suit with a white shirt and blue tie and his band all had
on royal blue suits. on the other stage ellington wore
a pink pin striped suit and the band had on burgundy
and they played and played and played and she and
her friends danced and danced and jitterbugged until
the late wee hours

SABAI DI


what a joy it is to get away !

fish out of a river eggs from ducks and hens
vegetables and fruit plucked from ground and tree
the crowing of roosters and childrens laughter
what an incredible pleasure

nearly as nice as proving to all doubters
at the foreign correspondents club that

i am the greatest writer no one knows

FALLING FOR NOK

" bo ! "

swinging in a hammock made of lime green netting
i noticed her standing by the edge of the balcony
nok wore a yellow tee shirt a gold lao skirt. her hair
was twisted and pinned into a bun. i asked and

she said " bo ! "

to my right was a nearby island with lush grasses
two women wearing bamboo hats rowed a canoe
fluffy white clouds glided by. a cow bellowed
the muddy river and time slowly passed

" falang ! "

i turned my head. using both hands nok unpinned her hair
it cascaded and bounced to her waist thick and black and
coconut oiled. swinging in a hammock made of lime green
netting i looked and looked and looked and then

i fell to the floor !

FINDERS AND KEEPERS

a young neighbor girl asked if i had seen thirty dollars.
her slightly older friend explained she lost it while
running down the street. i joked that i hadn't found it
but if i did i would spend only half and return the rest

ten minutes later they came back and i asked if the
money was found. the older girl said it was not but
her mom gave twenty more. she is an american and her
mom is cambodian

we talked a bit about my visits to cambodia and the
khmer langauge and her fear of going to her mom's
homeland because she's been told it's full of ghosts

i was suprised there appeared to be no drama or stress
about the missing money. i'm old enough to remember
when thirty dollars was a day's wage, a damn good one.
yet here is an example of it today being merely finders
and keepers

what is the process that creates such widespead wealth
that the loss of thirty dollars doesn't result in the gnashing
of teeth or the slapping of faces. could it be that we are
the financial elite that we rail against and loudly denounce ?

are the current turmoil and sour circumstances that are
sowing fear and dread everywhere the consequence of
our actions. or is it what is needed to be done so you
and me and everyone we know can retain our elite
position and privilege ?

EATING


my dear friend how lucky you are because i am going
to share a secret. i am going to inform you of a place to
eat that will enable you to say

" hey man i was there twenty years ago and...."

one hundred meters from the ferry station and on the
right side is a humble eating place. there are several
yellow beer cases used as cooking stands. half a five
liter can holds charcoaled wood below a blackened
wire grill and chicken grease drips from impaled
meaty bits and fatty pieces above. a tin steamer is atop
a planter glowing red inside and outside ringed in ash

there is a single tiny tiled table. shade is provided by a
large green and yellow umbrella. the owner is modest
and expressive. dear friend if you take a chance and
seat yourself the meal of a lifetime will be yours.
its aroma and taste and texture will make you exclaim

" oh my fucking god ! "

well there you are my dear friend the secret revealed
and if the good lord in his benevolence and compassion
leads you to this delightful place, good eating !

GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS !


me - good evening everybody. in the studio tonight
i have guitarist vuka vuaka, an old friend

he - well, thanks for having me down and as always
thanks to our sweet lord

me - here here, bro, here here. i'd like you to tell
our audience about your time living overseas

he - well, i spent some of my younger years in europe
the scandicountries, you know? i wasn't doing
anything in particular here and a friend of my dad
said to me that i should go to abroad, to europe

me - and that's how you went over there ?

he - yes, that's how it happened and let me tell you
good god in heaven it was just girls girls girls !

me - really ?

he - bro, let me tell you what a blessing the good lord
laid on me when he sent me to a european country !
there was heidi who stole me from camila who took
me from greta and on and on !

me - holy moly, man !

he - bro, bro, bro, you just don't know !

me - was it difficult returning home ?

he - well, let tell you a small story. three years after
i left i came back to see my folks. and later i'm
visiting some of the fellas and we're drinking and
smoking and having some laughs, you know ?
one of the things i had been missing

me - hanging with old friends ?

he - that's it, old friends, exactly. but anyway, now
check this out, i'm at a shop and the shopgirl,
that's what they call them over there, shopgirls,
so this shopgirl makes milkcow eyes at me and

me - milkcow eyes !?

he - yeah, you know, she's looking at me all daisy mae
and this leads to that and i'm at her place with a
bottle of ole granddad and we're all huggy kissy
on the sofa and i tell her i want to make love to her
at the beach under the half moon

me - oh yeah ? we're you going to howl at the moon too
he - oh, i was going to howl and then some, bro.
and do you know what? that girl tells me that i must
be crazy if i think we're going to do it at the beach
and was i some kind of pervert !
me - okay ?

he - let me tell you bro, those scandibabes will make love
on a hill, in a valley, by a river, rain or shine, all day
and night, you know ? so i filled my shotglass and put
it down the hatch and told her to have a nice evening

me - you just got up and left ?

he - bro, i left and left that fifth of granddad and the next
morning went to my folks, hugged and kissed them
and told them i loved them and that i am over and
out of here

me - and ?

he - and that night pan am to new york then twa straight
to london

me - how did you get back to scandiland ?

he - well bro, you know on that flight to london there was
this irish stewardess, a redhead, and

me - girls girls girls ?

he - hey bro, it was girls girls girls !

PAKSE


after two hours sleep and a trip by boat, foot, big and
small truck, and foot again i enjoy one of two reasons
to find myself in pakse

a large ceramic bowl of pho moo at makkys noodle shop

the pho is made in the old style with handmade rice
noodles, finely chopped green onion, bamboo shoot
and ginger. irregular cuts and textures of moo sit on
the noodles and small golden globules of grease glisten

you deeply inhale and hold the aroma for a moment

then with both hands bring the bowl to your lips
and sip slowly the best pho moo southwest of lao bao

renourished i continue by foot to the second and final
reason to be in pakse. the long new bridge over the
mighty mekong river. it is a gift from the people of
japan and a better beautiful day of pleasure cannot be
had than walking across it

after a short ride on motorcycle and a long one in a truck
i reach vangtao. i change kip to baht exit the country
and enter the next. there is a small line at immigration
the single official is pleasant and grandfatherly. he looks
at my documents looks at me and looks again at my papers

my last name begins with an " o ". the official says my
first name then " obama " and smiles

JANET


with the exception of a morning walk the day had been
spent at home. breakfast made and eaten, mom called
and spoken to, and the rare treat of reading today's
newspaper in my overgrown backyard under the sun
rather than by internet

a bout of restlessness overcame me early in the evening
so i washed, changed my clothing and left home for
a walk. here and there children played, teenagers
flirted and laughed and men worked on cars or
chatted with neighbors while sipping beer

near the end of my street i noticed, double-parked,
a minivan which belongs to a woman named janet.
seconds later there she was walking from her minivan
to the sidewalk. i said, " hola, there is that pretty
woman again !" smiling, she held out her hand
and in a sexy purr said, " charlie "

she wore a while blouse that was lowcut and a very
visible white frilly bra. taking her hand and gently
squeezing it i said, " everytime i see you, you get prettier
and prettier, and its just not right that i dont get to make
love to you every day and every night, too !"

purring again she said, " oh scotty you make me feel
so good, i really needed that ". i held her hand just a bit
tighter and quietly said, " really? well whenever
your husband goes out of town come see me and
we'll do it again, okay ?"