Call and response
Watching a Qawali music show in Lahore and almost making a spectacle of myself by being the only person in the audience applauding after a song.
Hitting high notes
Like it was nothing
The lead singer leads seven more
Sitting on the stage as
Unfamiliar instruments
Carry a tune somehow familiar
Call and response
Like a conversation
In song
The notes reach higher
The tempo runs quicker and
Conversation turns to argument until
Suddenly the song
Stops.
_
My hands of their own accord
Reach for each other
In applause,
Then
Stop.
_
Clearly
There is some different
Response
Called for, better than
Mere Western applause.
_
There is not a
Sound
Nobody claps
But a chap with a
Glorious moustache
On the next table gets up
Strides over to the musicians
And flings a far-more useful
Praise of cash
Down onto the stage.
_
The next song ends, another man
Flings down another fistful
Of rupees.
_
A better response,
In a way, than what
I am used to.
_
Applause never fed anyone.
_
No standing ovation
No matter how
Rapturous
Ever paid for a child's
Medication.
About the Creator
Roderick Makim
Read one too many adventure stories as a child and decided I'd make that my life.
I grew up on a cattle station in the Australian Outback and decided to spend the rest of my life seeing the rest of the world.
For more: www.roderickmakim.com
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Comments (1)
you are a one of the best writers