“There are foods served on family tables
…wives for husbands
…girlfriends for boyfriends
Now –
…husbands for husbands
…wives for wives
…kind strangers for hungry travelers
…Only costing some cedis monthly or weekly
Adwoa Brukutu,
But here, where I stand
…the food in my ayaase
…is not free
II
You can’t get up from your house
Chew your nnubena like a wicked herbalist
Top it up with your Alomo like a tactical atupaoilist
Eat your fufu like a body building staminafillerist
And come to my underway for a match I’ll struggle to finish
Only to be told ‘e sweet me e sweet you, who go pay?‘
If you don’t fear showers you must fear tsunamis!
Aboa nkyi wo nwe w’ate!
III
If you wanted to eat free
You could’ve woven your disgusting traps
To get one of the gullible vajayjays hawking for love
You fear responsibilities but want to atupa jenjen like a ruthless nnwuramu akɔkono
So you steal your way into a bargain
…agree on a price only to finish and pretend you’ve a debtor’s amnesia
Toonoo!
IIIb
You can’t come to a shop
…buy what you think you can get in the forest
…and expect the shopkeeper to applaud you
If you’re daft
…you stay in your house and be played like a draft
You don’t come to my territory to play me sore
Suckle me dry
Squeeze me to body aches and walk like a tail king out
…without payment thinking I have no chit to hound a law enforcer on you!
IV
I buy the drugs I use to wash my rail beneath
I buy the panties I wear to please your piipiis
I buy the food I eat to be strong
…for you to flip and turn me like frying egg in a frying pan
…you were keen on burning
I buy the water I drink
…the water you turn into sweats to drain with your
…open your mouth
…lie down
…kneel on one leg
…cowgirl
…reversed cowgirl
…turn this way
…doggie
…ride me hard
…sideways
…hang in the air…
So how dare you finish murdering my inn
…only to stand up and want to leave?
Reverend Atupa,
…I’m not your podium!
V
My Akosuakuma which you’ve used your akuma to make kumaa
…needs urgent repairs
One of us will die here
If I don’t see my money!
One of us won’t leave this place
If you don’t produce my money and you know it is not me!
It is money I earned with my sweat!
Money for a service I overprovided
…and there is no shame which will tame me for you to take me for a game!
So I’m never letting go!
You Sister standing like a lost angel
…stay out of this!”
VI
So I did as told and walked
As she holds her fire beneath him
…as her colleagues fan it to make him hottest
For it is her land afterall
The land she packaged for rent
And she deserves the fees
…for her rental
I, who strayed to explore in her territory
…have no business interfering
I’ve no judgement and no rescue plan
He pays the Piper who calls his tune
…and dances to whatever the Piper plays
…even if it deafens
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © May 19, 2020
Mum Cee 