Thank God for the birds.

wiwords.com

When I attended primary school in Port-of-Spain I had to get up at the rosy hour of 4:30 a.m. to get ready since I live in the east and we all know how loooovely the traffic is on the “East-West corridor” between 6am and 8am. It was not too difficult to  arise from slumber primarily because of a Keskidee  which lived in the lime tree outside my bedroom window. Every morning my sister and I would hear the shrill call and response: ‘Keskideeeeeeee! Keskideeeeeeee!’ which became our complimentary alarm clock courtesy Mother Nature herself.

I currently live in an area filled with fruit trees from mangoes to ‘five-fingers’ (carambola) so naturally there are birds EVERYWHERE. Technically I live in an aviary. My alarm is the track from the Rise and Shine video which I mentioned in a previous post and which basically tells me to get up and haul ass to the gym. By some truly extraordinary event my phone was off and thus no alarm was heard. I woke up on point though and after a moment of panic-realization-hesitation-resignation, I smiled and thanked God for the birds.

Bless up

TMIDM

P.S. If you attended primary school in Trinidad and Tobago in the eighties and experienced the joy of Boyo and Carla in the Republic Reader aaaand had heavy doses of choral speaking fed to you, you would remember this poem:

I know you by your yellow vest
You little keskidee
That suits so well that clean brown coat
That cling so close to thee

The little ring upon your head
That forms a little hat
Why if you stood with all the other birds
I would know you just by that

And if for fun you hide yourself
So that I could not see
I’d know you still, you pretty thing
When you sing…
I hear you sing…

Keskidee…
Keskidee…
Keskidee…

By  OLGA COMMA-MAYNARD (1902-1998)

Random memory recall…..:)