{ Wole Soyinka: Telephone Conversation. }

[delga]

So, class got cancelled which means that although I still need to finish my sonnet analysis, the presentation doesn't need to be done for another week. I've bookmarked c.10 articles on Paradise Lost which I'll go over at the library later today, after I've handed in my assignments.

I also just now realised that the Anthology that I bought for Traditions in Poetry actually covers work from 1000 AD through to 2002, which is smashing and means that I don't have to sell this on once the class ends because it's actually full of stuff that I want to read. Poetry, fabulous!

--

Telephone Conversation
by Wole Soyinka

The price seemed reasonable, location
Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. "Madam," I warned,
"I hate a wasted journey--I am African."
Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was foully.
"HOW DARK?" . . . I had not misheard . . . "ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK?" Button B, Button A.* Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.
Red booth. Red pillar box. Red double-tiered
Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed
By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfounded to beg simplification.
Considerate she was, varying the emphasis--
"ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?" Revelation came.
"You mean--like plain or milk chocolate?"
Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length adjusted,
I chose. "West African sepia"--and as afterthought,
"Down in my passport." Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness clanged her accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. "WHAT'S THAT?" conceding
"DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS." "Like brunette."
"THAT'S DARK, ISN'T IT?" "Not altogether.
Facially, I am brunette, but, madam, you should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
Are a peroxide blond. Friction, caused--
Foolishly, madam--by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black--One moment, madam!"--sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears--"Madam," I pleaded, "wouldn't you rather
See for yourself?"

(*) Buttons to be pressed by caller who has inserted a coin into an old type of British public pay phone.

--

Okay. My day has just drastically improved. Marvellous!

Comments

[wliberation.livejournal.com]

...Okay, that's just spooky: we talked about this very poem yesterday in lecture. Good timing.

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

...TWINNAGE.

No, really, that is pretty damn spooky. Sometimes we freak me out a little, you know?

[wliberation.livejournal.com]

We freak me out too, at times. And I think this isn't even the first time this happened? There was that dub poem, though... No, you posted that one some weeks after we'd dealed with it. So, phew, not as spooky after all.

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

Crikey! I know we joke about the twinnage a lot but whoa, nelly. Sometimes chaos presents itself as order, etc. etc.

(Haha, am in the library, failing at academia by reading rss feeds via Google. Et tu?)

[wliberation.livejournal.com]

Huge, interesting theories regarding the fabric of the universe could spout from this, surely.

(ah, I can relate. I just woke up an hour ago, and have now been drinking my morning coffee for said hour. The plan is to get some assignments done today before my lecture at six, but I have a feeling that I'll end up listening to music all day instead.)

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

Or we could just blame it on the aliens again. That always works, and they don't seem to mind.

(Oh man, what I could do with some caffeine right now. Good luck with the assignments; I can relate to that. It's a good thing my class got cancelled or I'd be in a bind right now.

On the plus side: music is yay, and I sent your package off today so you should get that soon.)

[wliberation.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that'll work. Would certainly save me from thinking about it.

(*stressvacuums* I hope you're not too clonked up [edit: um, yeah, making up words there, I think, but you know what I mean] with work. Except I know you probably are, so: *stressvacuums some more*

Oh YAY! You're marvelous, you do know that, don't you? *hugs*

I'm currently having some nostalgia trip with music dug up from the depths of my desktop that I haven't listened to in ages. Assassin Tango, for one. God that track has some bloody fantastic strings.)

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

(*stressvacuums in return* You too! You're winding up for the end of the year, y/n? So I guess we're both, um, clonked.

YES. What a fantastic track! [I always want to dramatically stamp around the room to that track. Um. Well, I do!] I've been totally into Rilo Kiley recently. The end of Does He Love You? from More Adventurous also has some gorgeous strings. Actually, when I get the chance I need to upload this new version of The Lark is Rising that I've got for you. Australia Orchestra = amazing. Plus, a violin solo that makes me ache.)

[wliberation.livejournal.com]

Yeah, courses are wrapping up, exams etc coming up. I should be done by 9th May. [Well, whaddya know: clonk is a word after all. Although not really fitting to the meaning I was trying to put it to.]

Do you have Rilo's The Absence of God?

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

Wow, not long to go then! I have to hand my dissertation in a few days before then. Aie. Are you staying in Turku for the Summer, or heading back up north? [Haha, yeah. But I think I like your definition better, lols.]

YES. MARVELLOUS. and planning's for the poor so let's pretend that we're rich / and I'm not my body or how I choose to destroy it The Mother helped me stock up on the RK discography for Easter. (She likes to give us something for Easter, but not Easter eggs. So I got some music vouchers, huzz.)

[wliberation.livejournal.com]

Aie, good luck with that and all. I'm planning on staying here. Last summer was a bit useless, so I'm trying to get a job here. If I don't get one, then I suppose I could visit home in July. I'm trying to get some studies done during the summer though, and travelling back and forth for that would be a pain. [Heh, maybe we could be all revolutionary and start using the word in our own meaning and see if it would catch. TAKING OVER THE WORLD, REMEMBER?)

I love the line we could be day-time drunks if we wanted/we'd never get anything done that way, baby. And your mom is awesome.