Going Off

 

 

I like to play with phrases

They are so much fun,

Let’s take the phrase “going off’”

And see how far it will run.

 

Only a couple days ago

I treated to “getting on”,

Several different meanings I gleaned

But I could have missed one.

 

Okay, here is “going off”,

I’d better be getting on,

In this heat that we are having

My ideas are quickly gone.

 

Going off number 1

Refers to mental instability,

Going off one’s rockers in Bajan

Is a term for insanity.

 

"He like he going off!"

Or, "Like he losing he mind!"

This you would hear quite often

Or, “he looney” sometimes.

 

Going off can also mean

When milk begins to curdle,

Some will drink it in this form

For me, that’s a hurdle.

 

 

It has a repulsive smell

And looks like baby’s vomit,

I would have to be going off

To drink any of it.

 

Going off number 3

Is leaving for other shores,

She left for Canada and America

Only the day before.

 

He is going off to study

To pursue a legal career,

I trust he doesn’t go off course

When he gets over there.

 

There is also a going off

That can refer to spoiling,

Like cabbage left out of the fridge

And this can be nauseating.

 

Going off target is another

Just like someone losing focus,

When pupils are guilty of this

Teachers make a fuss.

 

She was going off on him

Meaning she took a turn in him,

Whatever it was the boy had done

Must have been a terrible sin.

 

When last I saw him

He was going off on a trip,

With school just about to start back

He’d better make it quick.

 

There is something I like:

That is, going off on my own,

It was easy to do when I was young

But difficult now I am grown.

 

 

 

“De radio going off air!”

We would hear this in the past,

After the broadcast had ended

The national anthem was last.

 

This happened every night

At exactly eleven o’clock,

Once you heard the National Anthem

It was eleven on the dot.

 

An alarm was going off!

This was not difficult to tell,

I am sure it awoke my neighbour

For it woke me up as well.

 

That’s all I can think of

Maybe you can think of more,

I really must be going off now

But I had fun galore.

 

Stewart Russell © September 10, 2023