Keeping Your Sight

Stares



Ridge



Clothes of nakedness

Mystique lurks like a fat rat



Hug



Trip



Kiss

Waiting to soil what new thing I and you have—

Hiding in old shadows that refuse to leave. But



Laugh



Bus stop.

I can see your footprints

All over Amasaman

And you have springs in your step



Hurt



Work

In your time I shall see your skill

Your creative spirit reels

Wearing letters before skirts

Then getting nude when the world’s most alert



Love

Let’s resurrect the buried parts

Pasts filled with joy

Regained at instances where we tear our passion

Passion that can be smelt centuries from today with today

And leave them to be picked up again, and again, and again

And littered.

Sacred Spice

To Kimi, whose troubled thoughts I twisted.

When I refuse to go
I refused to go to their ritual of perpetual shouting.
Their incessant plea to the skies on sunny days
Where their Redeemer sits up looking down
Beards unkempt, presiding over rotten life -
Himself pure.

But I refuse to join the mad shouts
Let the Old Man pour pepper
Into my eyes; I shall lay it open
Never blinking

When I refuse to go
It is because of fear for my own madness

A state of mental dysfunction

A state of mental dysfunction
We are on a mission to commit suicide:
So help us Lord.
Let us build mansions tall enough to hide our deficiencies,
And share pepper smeared with fresh faeces
As gold for the poor.
Let the people talk about how our fart smells
For a week;
While they are at it let us fill our paunches
And add an ounce of gold to the tip
Of our imported leather-made shoes.
When they almost see us,
Let us bathe our bodies in oil
As black as ourselves, and
Use dollar notes as stickers, so
We shall not be seen. When they look
Into our eyes in search of some truth,
Let it be that of a baby’s – pitch black pupil
Reflecting our mildness and innocence, yet
Deep and white of uncertainties
Unspoken of.
When those of us as yet to announce
Battles with their conscience
Betray this esteemed group with their good, Lord
Let them carry the burden of the night soil
Till their necks break and then death.
We shall arrange a funeral
In one of the saintly churches
And sing foreign hymnals, alien
Enough for the tired lips of those of old

We attend with money taken with
The breath of night and a killed mind;
A chorus of adieus for you, and
Those like you
For our tongues have lost sounds of due!!!

We know when we pull down panties, and zips
The child playing at the corner will see
How rotten are our bottoms;
So let us swim in black oil, and hot gold.
Let our decayed tooth
Weak with sweets be changed into shapes of gold
So when we turn to smile
The toddler would giggle a while
And tap with her left hand the red earth.

Lord
You will know we have arrived
With offerings of suffering
From the people; and,
You must help us!

2 November, 2010. Legon at dawn

For LaS

snoring away memories
but rise to pick them
scattered along the shores connecting
us are those gems
of laughter and of pain

Mask Me

So I feel like I committed an abomination
I was angry so I didn’t care

I cut all of my hair
Against your wishes and the dictates of some sense
You who know all things
Making the Sahara your dry leisure
And the foot of Afadjato your sleep place

I committed an abomination under your shed
(You did nothing; you wretched soul
You looked on unconcerned; and the wind blows anyway)
I was angry so I didn’t care

23 September, 2010