Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Steel drums.

They play in the background like a pulse in your ear after a good workout. The people with ready smiles and hearty laughs show you how to move to them in ways you didn't know hips could. Then you retreat to a recliner to doze off under suns more intimate with the equator than the ones you know.

In comes the new year, and with all of the celebration some part of you feels forlorn. A brief sun shower comes because you think of what could have been. But as fast as you do, you remember what was, what is and the tears get lost in laughter. Then you hear them--those steel drums--and you begin to shake those hips that your mama gave you. First slowly. . .then faster and faster. You throw your head back to feel the rhythm--that of other suns and that of life--both reminding you that it will be alright and that it already is.

Yeah, mon.

26 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Happy New Year, Spice Girl! Hope all is going well for you!

      Delete
  2. I knew it! You just dance and dance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh man, you know I did. Until 3:30a.m. on New Year's Eve. I woke up with tired hips and calves from dance hall grooving. So perfect, so wonderful.

      Delete
  3. Happy new year. May it come in gently. Love.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought of you and yours with every smile I saw from every beautiful West Indien I encountered. Some part of me always feels like a native when I am there. Such is the way of your people.

      Delete
  4. Enjoy yourself Miss Manning. You deserve it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Mary Alice. I hope you've had lovely holidays, too.

      Delete
  5. Replies
    1. Hi Bridget! I hope you are doing well. Thought so much of God Girl and you over these days. I hope your thoughts of her brought you smile after smile and always will. Happy New Year, my friend.

      Delete
  6. Mmmmmhmmmmmm. Have an adult beverage while you're at it, please.

    Maria, fellow Meharrian

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for sharing Kim. I've enjoyed reading your "Reflections of a Grady Doctor" since I began to follow your BLOG. Take full advantage of your time away from work to relax and unwind. Wishing you and your family health, wellness, and prosperity in the years to come.
    Rudy

    ReplyDelete
  8. Happy New Year to you and your family. Wishing you health, wellness, and prosperity in the years to come.
    Rudy

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yesss..enjoy yourself mama. Happy New Year Team Manning!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right back at Team Grant! Hope to see y'all soon, '92!

      Delete
  10. Happy New Year!! And thanks a ton for giving me a moment to stop and remember those times when I heard some steel drums on the streets of any one of the several Caribbean islands I've visited over the years. That would be a fabulous place to be right now, rather than buried in more than a foot of snow. I'm hoping I'll have the chance to return sometime in the not-too-distant future.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nice! Happy New Year to you and yours!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same to you, Nerd Girl! Hope you had a great one with the family!

      Delete
  12. Happy New Year to you and the family!! Keep writing the great blog that your big sis brought me too!! Enjoy your time off.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awwww! Thank you so much, Sunshine. That brought be some sunshine, for real!

      Delete
  13. From the deck of the Poop
    I'm thrilled to know that you guys had a ball. You've earned it.
    Love you both a bunch

    PoopDeck

    ReplyDelete

"Tell me something good. . . tell me that you like it, yeah." ~ Chaka Khan

Related Posts with Thumbnails