1001 Stories
Community
Back to All Stories

#198 Khadijah The Sounding Ground

Photo of Khadijah
Caribbean prayers in the drip of British coldness

Khadijah

Do you see me?

Sankofa

stirring rituals of memory

cast out of deep ocean magic

inscriptions to recall

rhythmic sounds

of a cartographer’s feet moving

to anchor father’s dreams

of back home

baptized in mother’s tears

and a holy ancestral spirit

I soar in all shades of the moonlight

body spinning truth

as if the storm and wind

evoke my skin

to remember

a soul molasses softly man

a tuff drum reggae man

a bronze like man

birthed from old

Caribbean prayers

in the drip of British coldness

my body a well-made vessel

that holds posture and beauty

limbs like tree roots

wheels knowledge

to come again

to a sound track

of life

Precis

The beauty of being in a company of older performers is the kaleidoscopic range of real-life experiences that they bring to the table. These experiences cover everything from the vivid and strange world of childhood, to the unexpected late awakenings of old age. Take our newest batch of anecdotes, for example. These new stories are delightfully diverse: from the earthly, sensual joy of baking bread, to the cosmic dreams of outer space; from an unnerving encounter with a poltergeist, to the risqué glories of adult pleasure products and burlesque. Running as a rich theme throughout, is the possibility of love, and the simple wonder of human connection. As one writer tells us, in her story of funeral rites and flirting, “Amidst death, life goes on”, and indeed it does, delightfully so.

Edited by Barney Bardsley