Wednesday, February 15, 2006

STREETS ARE MADE OF THIS

WARNING:The situations and circumstances detailed in this post could not be relieved in the abscence of strong language. They are narrated in context and in the idiom of the protagonists. This is not an intellectual excercise. This is the real world. If strong language offends you, skip to view the next post.

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I am the Big Shit in this here, tiny Shitville. See, Dinda the Resident Pharmacist is on compulsory leave. He took the Green Moody to some government resort; I do not remember which. So me, I am locum.

Now I did me two units in applied Chemistry for my Advanced Levels at Mtaa Senior School. Recognise that. Okay, so what if I think Enthalpy Change is some Revolutionary Ideology, at least I know that Delta- 9- Hydro- Crapizzle + limited amounts of brain is equal to FUBARed.

Anyway, these two days, I am stuntin’ sudden like. I am dealing on Sector I- that is the Digz side- Sector III and Ngong Road; from Adams to Karen. Oh and I got to watch the Dead Letter Drop Box on Choo Namba Nane. That there is a War Zone good folks. But it is where shit hits town. You ain’t got control of supply lines they tell me; then go to Parliament, start a church or such like easy scams. (Now the only church I would be in is where I am God and I am too young for The Cabinet, so I gotta hustle.) Anything for money boy. Anything!

As Pac used to say “…I ain't guilty cause, even though I sell rocks it feels good puttin money in your mailbox…” And it ain’t easy partner. It ain’t easy sitting on those there rocks, in the ‘hood, with Papa that is Sixteen- with a gun -and the rest of the Kids from Sector III to right down my place pushing Jay like it was Kay Salt or some crap soft enough to take home to mama. But mama needs her insulin and Pfizer didn’t get big doing Pro bono, see? It’s the money or she dead- deader than The Rainbow Alliance.

Loose conversations, Half lifes and twigs, Trust wrappers and Napshizzle cans. That is the debris that is eternally pilling up all around us- defining our lives. (Defiling our souls.) Lives spent in emptiness trying to live, at least, today that we might die another day. Care to sift through the garbage? Mind to take a look see? Or you are afraid to see the hope that once was? You cannot stand to see how shit you did last year, and the year before has turned these lives into a theatre of broken dreams?

I am Big Shit today, yeah you can call me king up in here. King Shit of Turd Mountain! And all my subjects is sitting around me. Fucked up morons shooting crap into their membranes….ssssssss.

Holy Kushumpeng” says Keno that been on these streets long enough to remember the tarmac.
Yeah bra…. Jesus Christ on a Hookah…. this here shit be aiggghhhttt!” says my boy D
Take two hits then you pass it on…pass it on!” yells Bobo- that Bobo that I toilet trained.
“Puff! Puff! Pass!”

Losers. I don’t smoke it. I just sell it.

Until they spring my boy Dinda, I am on this shit. But he ain’t gonna walk this time. They have done pinched him for a string of murders in Ngong. All the while that shit was going down, Dinda was in Mombasa with (censored) waiting for a boatload of crap. How is that for an alibi? Rest in peace young whore. (Pss…I hear they ain’t hang no one since my uncle’s second cousin in ’82.)

So how does this pan out? Well, Dunno. But in the mean time and in between times I got me a 3G cellie – which don’t mean squat coz we all on two G- and a bunch of low lives to carry whatever piece I be packing…like you know the deal, insecurity is a bitch in this city. What with all these morphs like cannot get a real job; they just wanna chill in the ‘hood acting like they was Potash. (Like I paid a couple of them last night to suck mine…just for kicks. Well, it feels kind of nice to pay for something, sometime. Help out a brother. It is like a three- second- Incarnation into Godhood. And my experience was more blessed coz I got to keep the fuckin’ Orgasm.)

I am pimpin’ man.

Now I see myself in the big time. So what about these kids? How they be the Change when they blazed to Indo Heaven? Maybe they can get high and think they was revolutionaries, I say. Okay I mean, hallucinate it. That is where they meant to be anyhow. Young and dreaming. Leadership is for the old. It is the African way.

Meantime I do not care. I am still too broke to afford a conscience. So I am on the hustle so I can be a bigger thug. Imagine me Hon. Potash, M.P, LTE- Legal Tax Evader. I want to be the first kid to bring a tax-free salary, or any salary for that matter- to the ‘hood.


Like I am fucking tired. Fucking tired of these walks down the railway line to inda and petty cash vouchers that you cannot wipe your ass with. Yeah, they taken Dinda’s felonious arse out of these streets. (Made it a better place, at least for their children- coz ours is hungry) and I am big fish…I got a plan…this is the plan…. now see…

Oh fuck, there goes my cellie, some cat wants to claim Sector II. Oh fuck, where is my (censored), like I need a bloody flack jacket. These streets is too hot…. run Potash run…

They don’t take you alive. They take your balls.




10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the war stories.Your narrative is incomplete without the 3 suns that roast you to a crisp in nai.Yes I say 3 coz no one sun can burn as hot as this one does.Btw have you ever noticed that the sun gets hotter as you go to the poorer sides of nai and it gets cooler as you are in the rich parts of town like lavi,runda and kileleshwa?
Yea half life and veve are always in the mix when you are on the streets.As for run ins with the boys in blue.They are a daily part of the life of the denizens of jobless corner or corner mbaya....

John Powers said...

This is great writing Potash.

>Young and dreaming. Leadership is for the old. It is the African way.<

You've got some idea how out of touch I am, and we can safely multiply that by two to get closer to the truth.

So taking that into account, let me try to explain a little why what your doing is so important. Quite simply the world needs the dreams of our youth.

You point out how dreams are dulled by drugs: so too for the old, albeit perhaps different drugs. But you dare to dream still.

Here's an article if you have the times sometime you might want to check out http://www.thenation.com/doc/
20060227/mosley

Walter Mosely is a popular and prolific author of fiction. He has also written a couple of recent non-fiction books about the way forward. The article is an excerpt from his most recent one. What he says is about America, but perhaps the same applies to Kenya:

>These young people are our only hope. We have to liberate them where we can, decriminalize them when necessary, detoxify them if possible--but most important we have to hear what they're telling us and make way for their leadership...

>You, the urban youth of America, must lead us.

Young leaders are possible. You are on your way. Lead or we'll all be led.

Anonymous said...

ya fo' real dawgg? selling joints all up in that bitch lyk shit is goin outta style?

well, I aint gat nothing to give ya. just my two cents. crazy world this is and everybody's gotta hustle. keep it low. keep it real. keep outta this streets. handcuffs n then some..... and yu well kno they are back when they coming like they want to burn down the whole village.
keep it real yo' It's true...streets are made of this!

POTASH said...

Hey thanks y'all for passing by. This is about all the inspiration i'll need to keep my fire burning.

Right now I gotta get back to the hustle. Gotta pay for this connection, through brains or brawn.

Hope to stay alive long enough to pen the next episode. Peace.

Milonare said...

Cool stuff Potash, cool stuff!!!

Man, you can write!!!

POTASH said...

Okay, Keguro that will be a fab idea.I am keeping my eyes open. And please, no mainstream writing gigs.. i am too talented for soft reading stuff....lol.

Uhm, Kymbrr if you are reading this, I saw your comment but blogger froze it. I will try retreive it.

Uhm, shit has hit the fan and so I gotta maybe lie low off the net and stuff. In the meantime and between times, just watch this space for the next joint off the street. I am out.

Sammie said...

Man, Am 100% with you on this one.

" So what about these kids? How they be the Change when they blazed to Indo Heaven? Maybe they can get high and think they was revolutionaries, I say".

Everywhere from poor eastlands to affluent Westi, The youth are riding high on dreams and wishes, some have the cash to get high (No naming of some "Celebs") while some of the others just do it to dull the pain that is existence.

Potash.. Potent

Paul J Stafford said...

i give it 3/5

Anonymous said...

Hi Potash. Great blog, well-written. I'm writing an article for nation on the Kenyan blogworld. Can you e-mail me about a possible interview?
bsinger AT nation DOT co DOT ke
Thanks.

POTASH said...

lol @ ben...just when I was about to post about not doing interviews. Anyway, lets see how it go.