Weep Not, Delley

Since she died things have not been very alright with me. And I’m sure you will be wondering if I’m not “madding mad” over my somewhat fetish public display of emotions arising from the passing away of the petit queen of country music.

Among the female artistes I love so much, Dolly Parton is one. The Special One like Jose Mourinho. Others include Tina Turner, Marian Makeba and Whitney Houston.

Don’t ask me why before I explain myself. I love Makeba for her beautiful voice, her root based, Xhosa and Zulu, defiant lyrics and her unapologetic, burning commitment to fight against the obnoxious, scary Apartheid regime in her native South Africa, even at the risk of her life. Remember she spent most of her adult life in exile!

Tina Turner nko?

O my God! Tina could also make me go ga-ga, I mean really crazy any day. She had everything going for her - talent, beauty, brawn- and the uncommon do- or-die determination to succeed in life despite the physical and emotional trauma she suffered while married to “Iron” Ike Turner, the husband from hell!

And how about Houston?

That’s another big star I will find difficult to forget easily. Her vocal cord continues to ring in my ears and hit my tympanic membrane (eardrums?) with seismic vibrations strong enough to cause an earthquake in my heart.

Wow!

Same feeling for the pretty country music crooner!

I have an unconventional “elonkoko” response to that. Can I bring it up! Well, why not? Fasten your seat belt to withstand a turbulence of language.

“Mosquitoes is always bite us”!

Sounds strange, esoteric and grammatically mind blowing. Yes, it is, in all ramifications. Itumo? Meaning that the “mosquitoes…” statement is without parallel lexically, syntactically and structurally. It’s an embodiment of all that can go wrong in grammatical construction and experimentation.

Hmmm!

Which brings me to the Dolly Parton matter. Fate has not been fair to her but, like Tina Turner, she converted the hardships she encountered in life into purpose and legacy. And did I get to know this?

It was a chance meeting with her in one of my half awake, half asleep moments that often result in a sweaty nightmare. And here I was this day, dreaming in broad daylight, orbiting the earth many times and finally crash landing in a fantasy highland, a place that looked like heaven. So beautiful a place. White, brown, pink and dark angels, angels of many colours and complexions, were singing and dancing and gyrating on their body axis, wriggling their waists “laka this, laka that”. O my!

Listen.

‘That world is not your home”, they sang a parody of Jim Reeves’ evergreen song. “We, the angels, have beckoned to you and here is your home…” I saw Dolly smiling and winking at me. “Delley, Delley!”, sne asked me to come over. I did with leaking eyeballs. “Weep not, Delley. Let me lick your tears”. Tears of sorrow from blood-shot eyes.

She wiped the tears, a handkerchief in one hand, a microphone on the other. “Jolene Jolene…”, the heavens roared! Dolly started addressing the angels and the rest of the crowd including Whitney Houston who made hay with her “I will always love you” chartbuster and legendary legacy. She then went on to deliver an enthralling thriller of an elegiac account of her life story which brought additional tears into my already overfilled “borehole sockets”.

(To be Concluded)