It is unlikely that I would have ever heard of the band ‘Dire Straits’ if not for my brother who, rather late in life, decided to learn to play the guitar. He would have been 19 or 20 at the time. He already played the piano. We both went to the same piano teacher. She was kind and indulged me. She loved my brother.
He was gifted. He taught himself the violin and the bamboo flute. He could sing too. So too our sister, who also played the piano. I was the family philistine. I was not exactly a philistine, but music wasn’t really my thing. I listened to whatever my siblings played or sang. Our sister had a monopoly over the radio, so the songs I did pick up were those she played.
Dire Straits was different. My brother talked a lot about the lead guitarist Mark Knopfler. He had posters. He learned and played Dire Straits songs. By and by, I learned the words. And as time went on, I forgot them all. The names remained longer: Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler and the song ‘Brothers in Arms.’
I don’t know the story of that bank. I don’t know Mark Knopfler’s story either. I only remember my brother talking about his fingers and that he used a pick-less fingerstyle technique that was unique. My brother figured he could do the same and if I remember right that’s how he played. Without a pick.
I remember him saying that Knopfler had long fingers. It’s hard to say if they were ‘extraordinarily long’ from online photographs. On the other hand, the finger-story has survived almost 40 years. That’s long, at least.
But why all this about Dire Straits, Knopfler, household music, sibling-talent as such? It’s our times; these times we find ourselves in or knowingly or unknowingly called forth or were powerless to stop. The dire straits we find ourselves in. Metaphorically, clearly, but also literally. Hormuz, if you want it in shorthand.
There’s noise in the channel. The world’s rabid bulldog states (need we name them?) are crying foul about the blockade imposed by Iran, but the Strait of Hormuz is not technically ‘international waters’ and since Iran has not ratified UNCLOS (The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) it can, technically, charge vessels a toll for usage. Like the Panama, Suez, Kiel, Volga-Don canals.
Anyway, as I write, there’s a blockade. Two, in fact. One by Iran on vessels that seek to use Iran’s waters and one by the USA in international waters. Dire is the word.
And therefore:
Mark Knopfler’s long fingers have grown
to engulfs civilizational divide,
tenacious fingernails pick
at a puppeteer’s dangling strings
An outdoor chess table stumbles uprooted
abandons a sidewalk forbidden to feet
and take root in the Town Hall
where 'miniatured' politicians
are re-dressed as kings, queens, bishops and knights
and are moved to crazy-weep
because they can’t find antidotes for their blues
and they’ve run out of the water of love
Organic fertilisers, meanwhile, have decided:
‘Squares shall we nourish!’
And so the chess board grew and grew
squares multiplied
fell off the table, climbed the curtains;
the blacks nudged whites out of slumber
to make room for knights in tired armour
to take unannounced naps
along deliberate ranks, files and diagonals
cramping the kings and queens
and pushing pawns to agitation
‘Guns in!’ roared the Uncivilised General,
but booty did not leave;
the river carried the water of love
to resurrect bombed hospitals and schools
while a neck of brine self-choked
to bequeath to a suffocating world
de-dollarized oxygen
And Mark Knopfler’s fingers softly strummed
Bringing all warriors home
to their valleys and their hills
solder irreconcilable allergies
put out unnecessary fires
glide through all straits, dire or otherwise,
and turn themselves into dervishes
who cannot breathe again
but will nevertheless sing and dance
There’s noise in the channel. Too much of it. My brother and sister may still remember the song ‘Brothers in Arms.’ Other songs too. I would like to hear them sing. And we might agree that it would be only right to say, ‘take a bow, Mark Knopfler.’
Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer. malindadocs@gmail.com.
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