Black Olives

Lisa Combrinck

I wanted to tell you
that here at the Hotel Polana in Maputo
I have eaten them and it is true:
the black olives make you forget

every taste you've ever encountered
and every hurt of the heart is comforted
every shred of suffering is diminished.

Here where the night has eyes that do not blink,
where the walls of the city still speak of soldiers
and struggle in all the bright colours of daylight,
where the street names leading to Baia de Maputo
evoke Nyerere, Lenin, Luthuli, Mao and Mondlane,
yet weeping is no longer a national anthem:
the black olives make you forget.

I left three black olives
in the bowl
for you my love.
Leave Soweto.
Come to Maputo.
Feast your eyes on the future:

Black olives
the colour of burnished wood
the colour of Madagascan pepper
the colour of granite mined in Zimbabwe
the colour of midnight's moist embrace

the black olives will make you forget.

LitNet: 08 August 2006

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