WHAT I WANTED…

What I wanted tonight was love songs but all I'm getting are Rap rhymes, old school High-life and too much talk on Radio.

So I am going to just pretend it's daytime and try to enjoy the High-life...they used to make me fall asleep those good old days when I was much younger and in primary school.

I remember how I would come back from classes for the day and get home in the heat of the sun. A heat so scorching sometimes it almost feels like my skin would melt off. I would walk leisurely even though I didn’t feel right in my skin. While I walked, I would fantasize about a lot of things. My visions would gain full reign and slowly, even the sun and its effect would be inconspicuous in the moment.

My feet would dig into the grasses as I walk. I reveled in their parting as they gave way to the weight of my stride. While that felt cool beneath, at times it would no longer be enough for me to just walk on it with my shoes; at which point I would peel them off and give in to the temptation to walk bare footed...OH! It felt good to bask in the caresses of the shrubs on the soles of my feet.

Occasionally it would awaken me to sing and make beautiful music. Other times i would be lost in reverie just thinking of the wonders of nature and contemplating in my heart lots of stuffs that only a young girl can dream up.

Sometimes if I was still close to the school fields, the flying grasshoppers and the sound of their snapping wings as they take to flight does manage to catch my attention enough for me to center my thought on other beauties, rather than the pictures that my mind was readily creating.

When I was done walking the distance away from the school fields I would start relishing the scenery of the streets that lead all the way down to my home.

Under the sun, the streets usually took on a new life. On occasion it would be calm and quiet and at other times the sheer loudness of the cars and the people defined the new piece of the art carving on my mind.

It was not unsightly to see little black buttocks getting along down the street in awkward steps; and another right behind. Little boys scuttling around in the sun, laughing with glee in friendly chase had a way of causing my face to light up in smiles.

Yes, it was a good sight to see...all of that!

And when I got back sometimes, I would meet no one at home (which today seems funny to me since I have five siblings). My father's stereo will be blaring at a high pitch, doling out ballads of this sort that I hear tonight. Beautiful sonorous voices that reached out to my young heart. Drawing me into mental imageries, that is almost indescribable with words.

I remember the long wooden bench that stretched in length on the corridor of my home. They were two of them. And they were in the original colours of their natural state; Untempered by the spraying of garnish paints. I would put them together and stretch my little lithe body on them and allow myself to be drawn into the sweet clouds of my own making, listening to the tunes that gently patted my mind's head.

Often they were high-life songs from Nigerian descents; other times it would be soulful rhythms of people from other far away African countries singing away and enticing you to come away too, to their distant lands. How I loved it.

Radio had such power at those times and those times were very often. They knew when to talk and when to keep silent. The songs had meanings and every anchor had the voice and diction that kept you yearning for more. I used to look forward to the cool of those times. And tonight I am reminded of those memories once again. What it used to feel like.

Perhaps I shouldn't consider it...perhaps, the changes in times are so far apart but I can’t help but wonder: Has Radio changed for you? ...HAS IT EVEN CHANGED?

So here I am, still wondering.

Quietly, the blues have crept into the background without my notice. And now it is beginning to suit another part of me. It is sweet how the voice types merge. The sheer wonders of music, tempting me to close my eyes, enjoy and doze off. Maybe this is what I need. Come with me if you can...