‘Sex on Moto’, ‘The Moto’s Cubby Hole’, ‘Ouaga Cowboys’ & ‘Catching Up With Friends’
Michael Raqim is a photographer and writer based in Texas. He began practicing film photography in 2004 and later moved on to digital format. He is currently working on a photo book called "Dreaming in Monochrome."
Preface Note:
Located in West Africa, Burkina Faso (formerly known as Upper Volta) is north of Benin and Ghana and south of Mali. Ouagalais refers to the people living in Ouagadougou, its capital city.
Ouagadougou is known as the premier motorcycle city in West Africa because motorcycles are the major means of transportation. In fact, Burkina Faso is called “the African capital of two wheels.” Out of Ouagadougou’s 1,62 million population, as of 2015, 765, 477 people owned a motorcycle. So almost one out of two people own a motorcycle. There is a hierarchy of Ouagalais transportation; walking is on the bottom, followed by bicycles, motorcycles, cars, and then chauffeured cars.
Burkina Faso was colonized by the French, so French is a dominant Western language there. Note, French words in the poems will have footnotes with their translation on the bottom of the page where the poem is.
Watching the Ouagalais on their motorcycles (aka motos) one can see a gamut of emotions and transportation scenarios. I hope to give you a glimmer of the roads in Ouaga. These poems were based largely on my time living in Ouaga from 2018 to 2020.
Bonne route!
Sex on Moto
It’s one or two a.m.
They are parked by the dam.
An old homeless man watches
the fire in a large can
several yards away from them.
She has a red mini mini skirt.
He sits as if driving,
and she straddles him,
facing him.
They pull towards each other-
she pushes up and away
from the dam and bridge,
aims for the fire
with her hips.
He pulls her to him
to land down again
and again.
Her hair,
hips,
and that oh so tiny space
void of fabric.
The moto stares across
the dam,
wants to go forward
and forward.
The Moto’s Cubby Hole
Under the rider’s ass
is not only the seat,
but a storage hole.
Lift up the seat
and stash your treats-
like cigarettes,
peanuts, or an orange.
Hide away your
extra pens and pencils,
spare change,
or that romance
novel Mom just won’t
have in her house.
Great place to conceal
a second phone
to the deuxième bureau
or keys to her house,
placed underneath
or inside your Bible
or Koran.
And remember,
first and foremost
to keep a towel
to wipe the dirt
off your seat
so your ass stays nice
and neat!
* deuxième bureau literally means second office but is used in West Africa to refer to a mistress
Ouaga Cowboys
Ride high in style with
shined shoes,
starched shirts,
and motorcycles washed
daily.
Ouaga cowboys press earbuds
in while they drive.
The music pumps them up
and their motos become
thrones. They are kings
of the road, so
they jut their right knees
out to the side
at 45 degrees,
and zoom by.
A gesture to say:
I claim more space.
I am large.
Check me baby.
I am cool!
Catching Up With Friends
She has her hair teased and highlighted.
She’s feeling good,
She’s made all green lights.
She’s right on time.
Then someone calls her name.
She turns to her left.
It’s him, the guy who made jokes
In chemistry. She smiles.
He remembers her name.
He asks how her exam went.
He says it is nice to see her.
She smiles and tells him he
Better watch the road.
They move up to the light.
It turns red. He moves closer
To her. He says he misses chemistry.
She clicks and hisses, chiding him.
Someone honks behind them;
The light is green. They both
Turn left. She waves.
He nods. They wait for further
Surprises on the road.
Suzanne Ondrus' first book, Passion Seeds, won the 2013 Vernice Quebodeaux Prize. She was Gordon Square Review’s 2022 runner up winner for prose, the 2013 Reed Magazine Markham Poetry Prize winner, a 2017 featured UNESCO World Book Capital poet in Guinea, Conakry, and a 2018-2020 Fulbright Scholar to Burkina Faso. Her work delves into love, desire, different cultures, history, racism, body image, African fashion, and women’s sexuality. Her forthcoming poetry book, Death of an Unvirtuous Woman (Finishing Line Press) from which these poems come, examines domestic violence and homicide in an1881 Ohio German immigrant couple from Wood County. Hear her read on her YouTube channel Suzanne Ondrus and find her updates on suzanneondrus.com.
