Do I know
a few words
is the enquiry

(as a librarian and I
scrabble away
she for the first time)

A few words
in Xhosa after all
I am a regular
non-tourist to the borough

(migrating as I do
between the local library
and one or two others
for their Reading Competitions
and the Whizz ICT Centre too)

A few words
she wonders of me
as we scrabble away
in the language of English

(a local Tanzanian ally
and recent writer of verse
has a goal of one or two
new words a day)

A few words
in Xhosa
I hang my head
muttering some excuse
for not

for not
a language alien
to me in my own
country beloved

A few words
as we scrabble away
that is all it might take

Moses Mabhida librarian Ms Ayanda Vena and I play scrabble, the morn of 8 August 2015. Neighbouring entrepreneur Martin Mfunya is the one who impresses his children in his habit of having a book as his constant companion. As well as one or two new words a day.