Akimbo

 

Akimbo— a good description for how your

arms look when, elbows bent, you have

your hands on your hips.

Now tell me why, I ask myself, why the

word akimbo popped into my head this

morning shortly after I awoke?

Never in my lifetime of 76-years have I

used the word akimbo. In fact, I have heard

or seen that word used only a handful of

times.

To me, akimbo sounds like an African word.

Maurice Akimbo would make a believably

interesting name in Swahili. Strange, akimbo

translated into Swahili from English is akimbo,

Yet, the derivation of the word comes from

the Middle English, kenebowe.

Why in my twilight years would my brain

conjure up such a word out of the blue? I

envision myself standing there perplexed,

akimbo with my elbows bent, hands on my

hips, gobsmacked with surprise—what in hell?

Oh no, gobsmacked? There’s another rarely

if ever used word for me? Why, after more

than three-quarters of a century on Planet

Earth is this happening to me?

Oh well, I may have just set the record

worthy of Guinness as the most frequent

usage of the word, akimbo, in a written

rant known to mankind.

Akimbo! Akimbo! Akimbo!...There, I’ve

said it three more times just in the event

of a tie. I ask you, at my advanced age,

what in hell else am I to do with the

remainder of my time?

                 -30-

Chris Hanch 5-29-2023