Red Lipstick at the St James’s Retirement Home, Cape Town with thanks …

‘Red Lipstick’ at St James’s Retirement Home, Kalk Bay Cape Town with thanks by Ms Paige Turner …
St James’s is like a stationary cruise liner docked in the ever-changing Indian ocean. The elegantly pink dining room is reminiscent of the age old First Class Queens of the Seas. Tea is served in porcelain cups and the ample library is stocked with Dick Francis and novels like ‘Careless in Red’. I tried not to be: I spoke my poems loudly, slowly and clearly as I’m not a lover of microphones.
There must have been at least 1500 years of living in that sunny lounge last week. The youngest was Khululwa Nkatshu. Khuls showed up with her mate Cindy who works on the cash till at Woolworths in Long Beach Mall, Fish Hoek and Khuls was the actress who performed my one woman play ‘A President in Waiting’ at the Masambe, Baxter Theatre two years ago. Thank you for coming to my perf, Khuls and Cindy.
A number of my poems feature those wonderful Xhosa Dlongwana sisters: Maria, Beauty, Patricia, Wendy, Miranda/Busisiwe, Pumeza and Kutala. Pumeza texted me at 6.00 am last Sunday to say their father had died. Pumeza is taking seven children by car to the Eastern Cape this Friday after work to get to her father’s funeral on Saturday and returning home on Sunday to go back to work on Monday. Pumeza, thank you for the Tuesday work you do in our home.
I want to thank Betty Halstead OBE for thanking me after every poem I read. Betty is a 100 years old and told me that I had enriched her life last week. She was awarded an OBE for tribal work in Zimbabwe. When I called for Qs and As she asked me where I would like to end up. I said I thought St James’s was a fine place to be … Thank you, Betty for enriching my life.
Next stop/Fish Hoek Scribblers/Thursday 15th November at 6.00 pm for another perf of ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’.