Again I'm trying something new. Please enjoy, & please vote or leave a comment. Us writers always appreciate it!
*****
For thy sweet love remembered, such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings
Mwali was whispering things again. If you sat near her, you would often hear little scraps of words, like prayers, or spells. This was one of the first I had picked up clearly. It was a warm, quiet afternoon at school. Even though it was our final year - with final exams coming - nothing much was going on and I felt like getting distracted.
"So, what's 'scorn'? Is it a kind of corn? And are you changing your state? You're not moving interstate are you?"
"Scorn is dissing, totally rejecting. And 'change my state' doesn't mean that, silly, it means to change my status, my situation." She said the last word African-style, 'sit-wey-shun', for emphasis. It always made me smile when she did that.
She raised her eyebrows and her eyes flashed in contrast to her very dark skin. "You should know about States of Matter, Mistah Science!"
She'd got me. I liked Science and was good it; I should have made the connection. I smiled at her. "Kenya 1, Aussie boy yet to score! Nice work. Where'd you get that stuff from anyway? It sounded pretty good, if a bit fancy."
She looked around to check no one was listening. She leant close and whispered furtively, "Shakespeare".
"Shakespeare?? To be or not to be? All those boring plays?"
Mwali glared furiously. "They are NOT boring! You just have to get inside them, then you see the people inside them! Heroes and fools, murderers and lovers! Shakespeare made them all." It was like I had insulted her dearest friends.
"And besides, he is a poet more than a playwright. His sonnets are each one diamonds." Daiyah-munds. "That was from Sonnet 29, one of my favourites."
"Seriously, 29? How many are there altogether?"
She laughed at me. "One hundred," she paused, "and fifty-four, Aussie boy! Then he puts poems in the plays too. Diamonds, every one."
"Diamonds, eh? A hundred and fifty-four... you could win someone over with that kind of loot. Tell me some more, princess."
Her face softened as she spoke.
Yet seem'd it winter still, and, you away,
As with your shadow I with these did play.
Quite close now, she looked wistfully into my eyes. I could sense a passion behind them. We stared, locked together. Then bashfulness overcame her and she dropped her eyes. Abruptly she moved away from me and went back to her work.
It left me stirred in an odd way. Was Mwali speaking to me, not just quoting an ancient poem? And what did it mean anyway? Then it came to me...
It seemed like winter when you were away,
And I was only playing with your shadow.
Was Mwali saying that to me??
Next day, coming into class, Mwali was there already. I said hello and she glanced up. She looked up, her eyebrows went up, then she hurriedly looked down again.
I saw something in her look for sure. She was pleased to see me, then worried I would notice, I was certain... now I was really intrigued. I opened my computer and searched online. Sonnet 29; only 14 lines. I could read them...
When in disgrace
... I got that straight away.
All alone
... I admit, the rest of it was a challenge, but I got the sense of misery - and the uplifting change at the end, Mwali's snippet from yesterday. As I wondered, the sense of it just came to me:
When I remember your sweet love, I feel so rich
I wouldn't change places with a king.
Mwali's look, those words, her intensity yesterday, what was going on??
That weekend, Mwali's words kept coming back to me. Also her figure. She had a way of standing and walking, quite straight, almost regal. With her shoulders back it was hard not to notice her well-developed chest. Other times she could lounge around like a Burmese cat, long dark legs carelessly flopped over chairs or steps. I actually found both attractive. (That said, I found most girls as attractive as any horny 18-year old boy would...) Mwali had very dark skin, with darker shades in her creases, which seemed to highlight her lines and curves.
After the weekend, I saw her outside the school in the morning. I didn't get too close, just gave her a smile and a wave. She smiled back warmly and I thought, that didnt frighten anyone, lets hope it stays that way.
Somehow it did, even getting better. I asked her to explain some of the sonnets, and she was delighted. She knew them really well, which made it easy for her to explain them. Over days and weeks she showed me many of the emotions in them: misery, pleasure, anger, frustration, joy. I started to hear the poetry in her speech. Sometimes Shakespeare's word order or a phrase would come out of her, such as when she said "For shame!" or "the solve is this".