She sells milk to thirsty travelers, wraps her spine slow on the shoulder of the road calabash on head, broad woody bowl perched on circular twist of dyed cotton cloth, her body a thread beneath it. Her thick braids say she is ethnic Fulani. Weighted with oil, they graze the sides of her bamboo neck, ropes that set the bells of her red-bead, gold earrings swaying in the steeple of her face. Her calabash contains her offering to the busy car park, a place of fair transactions: a glass of milk for a few naira, for less than the alms one might freely part with on a Sunday. She holds herself straight on the curved arm of the road, soothes what she can of a bounty of human need, shelters her calabash with a flat roof of woven straw. A point of light travels through this palm-fiber roof to excite the lake of viscous white trapped inside. But there is no splash of milk. No, not like July monochrome raindrops when they slosh in monsoon buckets that travel heavy and tilt over Africa. Her mother must have said: Careful, as you carry this. As if it were a crown, slender arms of mother and daughter lifted up and steadied the gourd, hours ago. And when their arms fell, silver bracelets tinkled like wind chimes, then settled loosely on narrow wrists, encircled the warmth pulsing there. Now, against an unguarded symphony of cars, passengers, voices of men and machines that try to but cannot blend, she lowers her calabash, brings herself to the ground to uncover it. Braids, earrings, bracelets in motion, she squats and enters the sound that the road brings. Some people say that Africans have been left behind, as if time selects the ones it catches up and pulls to the ground. But time leaves no one behind, not even a girl with a calabash. Time swallows her stillness like a thirsty traveler on the road from Ibadan to Kaduna.
Rights & Access
This poem was submitted for the "Poetry for the Mind's Joy" project and is reproduced here with permission from the author. All rights reserved. Poetry for the Mind's Joy is Poet Laureate Kay Ryan's project that includes a community college poetry contest administered by the Community College Humanities Association and a lively videoconference.
-
Viola Allo
American River College, Sacramento, CA
Faculty Advisor: Lois Ann Abraham, English Department Chair