Skip to main content

Life Earned

I stood on the queue  in the bank impatiently but almost immediate had to take several steps back . 

Body odour.

Something so despised but probably the biggest indicator of socio-economic status. The man in front of me was radiating a head smashing odour. There were two others in front of him, they probably stank too...who knows? This was overwhelming.

But immediately I regretted moving away , because a closer look at them and I saw life . Their skin dark and burnt by this ungodly sun, yellow-y eyes , bald. All three of them as if they had planned it . Their clothes shabby . And it dawned on me . This is the look of honest men , who had actually earned their living . Literally depositing their daily sweat as investment for tomorrow's bread . Not like me, with my crisp notes in a neat white envelope in my fancy bag. Money I hadn't sweat for . Probably more than they earned in a month . That's my weekly stipend . There , for the first time I smelt my dishonesty, almost completely covered by sweet-smelling privilege. 

I respect that odour that waved off them . It's the confirmation of dough well earned. Hard work . The cost of cleaning your livelyhood may very well rest upon the foulness of the odour of honesty. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lessons unlearned : On Respect

Photo by  Lisa Herbert You can't burn bridges then ask me to find my way back. Like where all good things come from; Twitter, I read that you cannot heal in the same environment you got sick . Never appreciated the value of that simple statement  until I woke up choking , in absolute seething anger , at family mostly .Because although I have mastered the 'outside people' , here I am , the 'outside people' to my inside people . And there is nothing I could do . My mum said never to use the word "hate" . It's ugly and cheap and so absolute . So here is my unlearned lesson; that loyalty must be given to family . No ! Loyalty , respect and all that is wanted must be given to those that earned it . 
Post a Comment
Read more

How to: Make Rice

As per rice, before the jollof Wisdom is your grandmother telling you to soak it for an hour, "experience" is your mother telling you to 3 table spoons of oil per cup, innovation is you using butter to fry the soaked rice first.  You're welcome!
Post a Comment
Read more

Space off.

  We all need space. Just enough to let us grow, but not too much that you feel forgotten and left out. S easy to succumb to the charm. pain holds you back, and every night you're on your knees same prayer, "Make me bigger, my voice heard, a better day tomorrow". Tough night, tomorrow is the same, same fake smiles...but you're honestly trying but the scariest thing is remembering, fragments and pieces of a painful past you were too young to remember or know better. fuck this, another day ill deal with this shit, but when. All I have to make is a single phone call, get it off my chest, tell them that i remember now everything that they did, and you know better, but you're not doing it just for that. its because you need to grow . because maybe, just maybe the pain will stop and you can trust again, maybe even feel beautiful and carefree like you once did...damn! thats a long shot , but its worth trying right? but i never do, so every day i dont, a small piece of ...
Post a Comment
Read more