TO FIGHT A RABID DOG

To fight a rabid dog
…you need a sane lion
With sharp claws
…and canines
One who rules the jungle with sense
…and intimidation

II
To fight a rabid dog
All fleshes must be iron covered
Earplugs must act ammunition
Chains should be ready to cuff derangement
To fight a rabid dog

III
You know they’ll kill cats no matter their fierceness
You know they’ll bite cows
…no matter their hugeness
You know they can chase antelopes
…no matter their swiftness
To fight a rabid dog
…you need
…you so need
You really really need
…a sane and healthy lion
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © December 12, 2019

INGREDIENTS OF YOUR TEARS

What are the ingredients of your tears?
No honey
No money
No talent
No friends
No beauty
Loss
Whatever that lives to feed off your emotions
Whatever that flies to peck on your happiness
Whatever that sails to fish out your laughter
Shoot
…with the gun of your mind

II
What are the ingredients of your fears?
A poor future?
A lonely life?
Societal whips?
Lies stripped to truth?
Whatever that lives to act base of your fears
Whatever that lives to act dough in your fears
Whatever that lives to garnish your fears
Burn
…with the strength of the knowledge that
…nothing does live forever
…not even you talk less your pesty fears

III
So play happy to kill your sadness
Play strong to kill your weaknesses
Play busy to kill off your loneliness
Play rich to drown poverty in a pool of positivity
Antonyms kill their opposite emotions
…than their synonyms
So play the deviant until you ripe
…on this tree of life
So you can rightfully be plucked
…in a welcome harvest
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Dec. 11, 2019

TOO HARD TO REMEMBER

December 10 is too hard to remember
It shows the blood in all red
And builds dark clouds in all my skies
As your thoughts roll like waves
…to the shores of my mind

II
December is a month I dread
It stopped my happy years
By taking Aduse Poku on its 26th
And taking you on its 10th
And taking Grandma Ama on its 27th
How do I live through such void
Even as this innocent December stares?
I dread them all but I wish I could skip through the 10th

III
I don’t know how people do it
But my mouth opens the taps of my eyes
…at your mention
My mind fetches regrets at your thoughts
And your thoughts drain all happiness in your hosting
That visit in my dream did naught to clear the sadness

IV
It’s been a hard year
A hard year that I’ve worked to shirk the thoughts of you
It’s been a hard year
A hard year I’ve jumped your thoughts
…to act cool
It’s been a hard year
A hard year
…I’ve lived like a fly in a body that claps
But no second clears you in my upper room
And breaths feel like poisonous doom

V
But you’re my baby
And I live like your mother
Knowing a reversal is my impossicant
Knowing you wait to take my hand
…at the end
That you’re well rested and playing pain in its pleasure
Pauses my pain sometimes
But missing you is all I do
Loving you is all I do
Wanting you is all I do
Needing you is all I do
For you are a me I can never let go
No matter the voice that calls
…for a mental separation
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © December 10, 2019

THE NEAR DEATH OF JESSICA

Ia
1. Christians
2. Muslims
3. Traditionalists
4. Others

Ib
1 and 2
…3 and 4
With their slippery palms
Hold on to the vehicle of beliefs
…falling from a high cliff
Fear of their seeds boarding the falling vehicle
…driving their strength which falls them along

JESS
Tricks can turn sticks then bricks to hurt
Just as good can better and better can best
Bad can worsen and worse can worst
You’re wondering how?

YAABA
Why won’t I wonder how?
Nana Nyankopong is not an idiot
He created a fertile pot and a tree sack
The latter planting life seeds in the former
Why else will the Bible ask us to multiply
…like sea sands?

AMOFA
Ask again Yaaba!
How can it get worse?
He claims he wants to marry a man
And wants us to be without worry
Sorry, I just can’t help but worry
As I look at you
I can see our future grandchildren
…being flushed down some unmentionables
Yaaba stop crying!
You’re making me teary!

ASAMOAH
Well, you’ll come to accept it
The shouting won’t wash
I did worse than you
But who can win against their children?
I for one worried about his rear hole
Wondering if the misdirected poundings
…won’t affect his bowel movements
Until I was told he was the top
I consoled myself with the fact that he does it to another
…and will live with his back intact
At least he won’t rot from his rear
And saddle me with the sadness of burying him

AFIBA
Wicked man!
I didn’t know wickedness was your family trait
So my son should suffer bowel troubles
Whiles yours walks around as a man of a man?
Have you no shame?
How do you bring up your children?
Anyway, Sister Zara’s girl has now turned man-girl
But it seems no one has noticed

KOKUVI
Stop talking about girls on girls
They’ll get tired playing with their many holes
…and chase husbands in churches
Serious issues abound
You guys are lucky
An Ewe man like me now lives disgraced
Where is my Kuvi?
I hear he now lives as Mandy somewhere in the Unclean Shit!
Your “Ewoo” consoles me not!
He actually did run away to cut off his manhood
…an Ewe manpower which many men dream to have!
I hear he dug a hole beneath him
And grew breasts
Just so idiots can gain access to a hole under his person! Mawu!

MAAME AMA
Ei!
How will God recognize him on judgement day?
This is like a bizaar movie!
You gave birth to a man
…only to end up with an artificial woman!
Imagine God calling Kuvi!
Then a small voice corrects him
…Mandy please!

JESS
Such silly jokes!
You all act as if the world has ended
Education is like light
…get it to see your paths in this dark
You all have it easy
There are those who build horns on their heads
Those who tattoo their eyes like demons
Those who grow their bodies into monsters
So let your children be
At least they live as they really want to live
Enjoying their lives with their other halves
They act themselves
They have the right…

KOKUVI
Maame Ama, Afiba, Amofa
Hold that Jessica!
You’re one of the people who help corrupt our children!
You’re one of the evil people
…who help turn our boys into second hand women
Rights! Rights! Rights!
Are killing our cultures
Beat her!
Teach her a lesson!

XI
That was how Jessica lost an eye
And nearly lost her life
But for the timely arrival of Papa Prosi
Who was called by Mr. Asamoah
What do we do with these hanging clouds?
Do we let the dark hold their marks
…and live the light of its hatred?
It sure is a trick which has kicked us
…with the sticks of surprise
As the practical kisses are missed in darkness
…and thoughts get pissed off with theories
The final verdict of change or otherwise
…is a suspenseful wait
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © December 9, 2019

SOME PICTURES

Some happy pictures tell opposite stories
And depict antonyms of glories
Some divine pictures frame many sorries
And need many backward lorries
…for their true stories to show
So kill no self esteem
…with pictures of happy beam

II
There are wailings behind some laughter
There are heartaches behind some smiles
There are hurts behind some glow
There are failures behind some successes
So skip your tripping and keep your head –
…up

III
If you can taste the thorns in some comfortable beds
And can feel the burns under some complex showers
If you can taste the sourness in some fancy meals
And can taste the boiling in some branded shoes
If you can feel the bites in some expensive clothes
And can feel the cuts of some wealthy crowns
You’ll laugh aloud in a crowd
…thanking your maker
…for making you saner

IV
Some attention is detention in pretensions
Some secrets unknown are secrets scary
Some sourceless power
…have sourceful damnation
So covet no display
…needing praises to document traces
…to save faces
When your mirrors are all you need
To feed your deeds
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © December 8, 2019

TRUST RUNS UNDER MOCK PARKS

Trouble
Rumbling
Under
Main
Polls

II
I thought fame and riches
…gets all the treasure
I thought name and power
…do always tower
So how did one with a Jesus skin
And supreme air
…with packed pocket
Sitting on one of the world’s biggest throne
…get dethroned by mockery?

III
Tears
Roll
Usurping
Master
Politically

IV
Did he just see his friends turn foes?
Did love sink to hatred hosted by his best?
Oh wows turning hows!

V
Told
Ruckus
Ultimately
Mainstreamed
Post-Pleasantries

VI
I can see the golden hair
…feeling unfair
…wanting to dare
…hating its airs
Orange skin touring through books to get the genuine
…who is never there
How does it feel to be backstabbed
…even with all the powers in hand?

VII
Temporary
Risk
Under a
Mighty
Pillar

VIII
Touring
Rains
Unfold
Monstering
Prayers

IX
Twitter
Rookie
Updated
Millennial
Piper

X
Lessons peep from his ocean’s deep
Money and fame are no tickets to reverence
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © December 11, 2019

AKUAFOƆ NSAMRANE

Nkasɛi akono nkonimdifoɔ
…ayekoo
Awiaden ano mɔdinmmɔfoɔ
…ayekoo
Nsubrane ano akukudurofoɔ
…ayekoo
Mmoadonoma huhuuhu mbɔ mo hu
Mfifire ne awɔ nnyɛ mpa mo aba
Sɛnea mo nnyim asaase ma ɔwɔ yɛn nuaba
Na mo yɛn wɔn ma wɔn som yɛn yɛm deɛ
Yɛ ma mo ayekoo!

Ab
Y’akuma pono nyinaa nsafoa
…kura akuafoɔ
Yɛn tɛkrɛma ayeyi kɛse n’ara
…gyina akuafoɔ so
Yɛn nyini ne yɛn ahoɔden fa kɛse n’ara
…gyina akuafoɔ so
Akuafoɔ ne yɛn teaseɛnam wɔ y’ɛnkwa mu

B
Enti ndidi ɛmmin
…nkesu ɛnda
…a wonda akuafoɔ ase
Enti ɛnkasa ɛnto w’abasa ɛnsa
…a wonyi akuafoɔ ayɛ
O ɛnwisa w’ano ɛnɛ da yi
…a wondwene akuafoɔ ho
Efisɛ aduane nfiri asaase mu nyini anwanwasoɔ
Ɛyɛ nnipa brɛ ne nfifire
…ɛna ɛnyɛn nnɔbae

D
Enti piri ɛkwan pa
…ma wɔn nnyuma pa
Ɛyɛ a, piri sika a ɛfata
…ma wɔn brɛ pa
Piri nfidie pa
…ma wɔn nfa nhyɛ wɔn nnɔbae
…na amprɔ
Okuafoɔ biara nkwa ho hia
Sɛ ɔde mfidie na ɛyɛ adwuma o
Sɛ ɔde ne nsa n’ɛdɔ o
Mpo wɔn ho fi hia mo ne yɔ
Efisɛ akuafoɔ na ɛmma yɛn asetena faango
…ma yɛ de di ateasefoɔ dwa
…wɔ asaase yi so
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © December 6, 2019

AIDING OUR FARMERS

Let’s
Let’s weed the harm out of our farms
Let’s
Let’s rid the mocks out of their stocks
Let’s
Let’s rid their poor out their recognition door
Let’s
Let’s walk our talk of their respect and honour
For who is human without farmers?

II
Why money turns honey to bully
…our farmers
Why dirt pet our farmers
…to disgust their feds
Why wrong strings their strong
…to affect their belongings
Constitute a force of loss to all

III
Sages,
…better manage to their advantage
Oh Sages,
Better pay to shine their rays
Leaders –
Better think to link their hardwork
…to fair remuneration
Cutting wastes off their sweats with industrious plans
Encouraging the young to take their tools
…without feeling like bulls
…and eventual fools
If we are what we eat
We must learn to not cheat
…those who farm our foods
For their unhappiness
…surely is mankind’s defeat
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © December 6, 2019

GIFTED TO TERROR

Amina,
…tell Leila to tell Niima
…that Rafia has been killed and buried in herself
Her body is now a walking coffin
…without her being in there
How did it happen you ask?

II
Just last three nights
Awudu’s lust drove his monsters
…to cast Rafia in his dubious feast of rape
That innocent girl was forced to taste womanhood
…and pushed by pain to old age
…jumping passions and love
Thanks to Awudu’s scissors of ruthlessness

III
Found in her first blood
Awudu was summoned and an eyewitness was called
Having been caught
He pleaded not guilty and pushed his wrong
…on desire
Rafia’s father and other elders met
…to see to the right punishment
And came out with marriage
They claimed
…food already soiled with one hand
…must be gifted to the hand
…in magnanimity
My heart sank

IV
How a young girl was punished to marry
…her terrorist
And banished to live as his second wheel
…frustrates me still
I ask how she will cope
Seeing the face that tore her innards
Stealing her childhood
…and skipping her teens into adulthood
Lawfully climbing her in his bought bed

IV
Does she have a vocation?
Oh no!
Can she feed herself in his location?
… Hell no!
Will she turn a servant?
… Oh yes!
Can she live to laugh?
… How possible?
How she turned food to her folks
And got sold to a thief
…shows the unfairness that drives
…the code of men
The unfairness that will kill her each day
…till her forever ever after
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © December 5, 2019

HEARTS

A heart opens like a flower
Once the right sunshine of tenderness
…the right dosage of rain of love
…and the right amount of air of care
Bless its growth
When it does
…appearances don’t matter
Poverty won’t close it
Opinions won’t shut it
For its beats will only follow the drumming
…of its benefactor
And its feet will dance to the songs of happiness
So grow halls to work your needs
…you with yearning aches
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © December 4, 2019

YOUR BEST ONLY

Rant your can’t and use it as shan’t
…to grant your couldn’t a tried
Shout your bouts and use them as clouts
…to flout the doubts which battle your giving up
But know
…there are many living on boats
…with light coats
…on bloated snow in your dream heaven

II
Use your high to buy the lie
…that you fly above all
…neglecting the calls of your highest
Dance one chance that can enhance more chances away
…like a dunce
Forgetting a happened calls for more happening
…each day
But know
…there are hares waiting to dare the fair for a deal
…using their souls as fare

III
Life is strife holding knives to cut and shape
…day after night after dawn till another day
…in an ever rolling dice
Your own never disowns you
…even if you’ve shown your rots and nots
So live to relive with a determined self revival
Giving your all for your own
Until life throws your breath
…out of its can
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © December 3, 2019

THE HIDDEN COST

Her eyes glued on him
Her pores raised their skirts
…of goosebumps
…in their yearning for him
Even thoughts of his possible touch
…rained her clouds of passion
So she boldly went for him
…and succeeded

II
Her dear Kwabena Appiah was ditched
…like a chewing gum emptied of sweetness
Forson’s fine figure,
His impeccably fitting apparels,
His alluring perfumes,
His flawless skin,
His six packs and
…his designer products,
None spoke of costs

III
But a little time is all it took
…to get the demands flowing
Money for clothes
Money for the gym
Money for skin products
Money for fuel
Money for his time
She began to see the formula on his pictures
…she lost
…in her fascination
When she spoke
…she was reminded of the long queue in wait
…should she default

IV
No matter how hard her body wanted him
She saw not the route to keep him
For she owned no bank
And certainly owned no money tree
She had no wealth
And knew no hardwork which could sustain his demands
So she let go
But her ex had combed the rest and found a gem
Leaving her stranded in regrets

V
She learned too late
…that gold once refined
…needs a secured vault
…and a rich hand to keep it
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © December 2, 2019

INTOXICATION

Love is one of the strongest rums
…of emotions
Just the right dose
…keeps the heart aboard the ship of happiness
…balancing challenges in smooth sails
An overdose arrests cognition
…defies will
…kills shame
…suppresses ego and pride
…blinding and deafening and numbing all odds

II
An alcoholic drunk
…has better fate than a love drunk
As the former is blessed with temporal insanity
…the latter might languish in perpetual insanity
…being ruled by a force all eyes see in the wrong
…but the controlled

III
Those who never drink from the love rum
…are better off than the overdose
For lack of excitement compares not to shame and derangement
So sip with a tip
…after a toe has dipped to taste
Don’t sip with your hip
…do your legs equip to avoid a slip
So you will not comatose in your body
…and made a robot of another
If the wake be long
…your regrets can fetch an arrow to pierce
…the heart of your future
Draining the blood of your hope
…till its anemic frame breaks
…killing your whole
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © December 1, 2019

THIS KUMVANA RETREAT

We came as individual islands
…and formed a nation
Holding hands of countries far and wide
…through play and laughter
…on the pate of Naivasha
Naivasha,
Where freedom is like breath for every living being
And opinions are affordable
…for each and every soul
Kumvana,
…a nation of unity and understanding
…knowledge sharing and bonding

II
I saw them all
…the good that added on privileges
…sandwiched by care and love and talents and greatness
…garnished with passion
Even the homely birds
…have spoken of our token of strength
…through their kwaa kwaa
And nature has shown us its beauty even in its wild
Kumvana,
…a nation of unity and understanding
…knowledge sharing and bonding

III
Sterre’s playfulness and smiles
Added to Jennifer’s warmth and care
Are like rain on a famishing land
Justine’s passion for Ethiopian dishes and Poutine
Added onto his knowledge and directions
…are like songs of flowing rivers
Nick’s friendliness
…Nina’s motherliness
Rossini’s tutoring
Dave’s gentlemanliness
Boroto’s knowledge and passion for Africa
Patrick’s love for food and hope for fairness in humanity
Hadija’s openness
Thandiwe’s laughter
Emily’s psychoanalitical support
Lydia’s adorable workaholism laised with her 1200 worded essay threats
Naz’s exciting promises of date nights
Kabwela’s royalty
Fiona’s experiences
Herbert’s supportiveness
John-Mary’s inspiration
Nancy’s assertiveness
Fabrice’s fineness
Mischael’s attentiveness
Selena’s cool shining personality
Ben’s love for nature
Spencer’s industrious talents and love for beer
Dione’s bubbliness
Renato’s adventurousness
Rony’s athletism
Isabella’s soft-spokenness
Freda’s fun side
Teneille’s helpfulness and brightness
Riley’s love for sustainable development
Frederic’s love to see others succeed
April’s tactfulness
Alexa’s sleepy headedness
Miles’ refreshing addition
Victor’s love for photography
And the light that comes from the smiles
…and beauty of the important others
…form a heaven on this here Naivasha land
Kumvana,
…a nation of unity and understanding
…knowledge sharing and bonding

IV
Rest is best served Kumvana!
Fun is best served Kumvana!
Hurts are best shed Kumvana!
The revival of soul is best done by Kumvana!
…Kumvana,
…a nation of unity and understanding
…knowledge sharing and bonding
This is an experience of a lifetime
And experience to cherish forever
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 30, 2019

THE BEST OF OUR REST

When time stops a rest
…enjoy
Because it pushes our quests to their best
…clearing some ills from our chests
…going as far as weeding out some of our thinking pests
…to give breath to our joy

II
A human is a farm
…needing a tending
…periodic weed clearing
To ward off pests
There are no wins for successful broken bodies
For what is a journey without a working body
…in the vehicle of a spirit
…and the engine of a soul?
Rest is the best vest of the human nest

III
Be the centre of your occupational chores
Your loss
…only needs a whispering advertisement
…for your swift replacement

IIIb
Think of you as the sun of all dark causes
Your loss
…only needs one dark night
…and eyes blinded will show your spirit your true form:
…replaceable electricity
Rest is the best vest of the human nest

IV
So pause your cause and let rest be the boss
…to toss out ailing trauma
…to fix you clean for your body’s effective continuity
While at it,
…meeting new hearts are good distractions
…with new perspective attractions
Rest surely is the best vest of the human nest
…on all life cruises
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 30, 2019

AKOKƆ ASA WƆ AKROMA KROM

Yɛ se yɛn mmra nantinkwa
…na kro chia hyɛ me nan yi
Yɛ se yɛn mmra ano nkatumuo
…na kasa ɛgoro m’anum yi
Yɛ se yɛn mmra nsa pan
…na gong gong ɛgoro me nsa ano yi
M’adane ɔpatuo wɔ nnomaa a wɔkɔ anɔpa su krom
Me yɛ dɛn goro serehehe?

II
Ɛnnyɛ abɔfo tuo ano
…na ɔha piri ahumɔbrɔ
Ɛnnyɛ awia hyew ano
…na nkuto piri awɔ
Ɛnnyɛ mframa mmirika tiriho
…na ntakra piri nna
Enti mɛ yɛ dɛn atena asaase yi so?
…Me apataa a m’abɛtɔ nkraman a wɔ te kɔm kro mu?

III
Ɛnnyɛ soronko biara n’ɛyɛ kronkron
Ɛnnyɛ apueyɛ bia na ɛwɔ atɔyɛ
Abrɔ a ɛwɔ ɔtan agoro ano
…ka sɛ oodi w’awu a
W’anɔpa bɛ dum wɔ sum ano
W’awia bɛ wia w’anigye wɔ ewiemu
Na w’anadwo asɔ hann de akyerɛ w’atanfo
…wo mfoni bɔne
Wo papa biara nni hɔ a
…ɛsɔ ne kanea wɔ w’atanfo anim
Yi apae na wo mpuntuo ankɔhyɛ
…w’atanfo nsa yɛm
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Nov. 29, 2019

KENYA TOWN

Gloria,
You know the gift you’ve bought is euphoria,
Changing my odd spirit name to Victoria
In what can now be part of our best historia
A beautiful beautiful Thursday traveling to a Friday utopia

II
From Nyerere Street to Central Park
…Daily Nation Headquarters to the pilaar joint
Coffee Casa and its literary insights to KFC through a matatu
…without its signature loud music
Sparks did hack our hearts

III
The laughter
The wins
The girls flying through their storms of womanhood
The love
The distance
The wait hoping life will bridge the cold
The bold
The shy
The hands locking right in smiles
Reliving Iseyin and its thrills
As shame is shamed and dames roam free
…in careless spree

IV
How gifted are you to give me a tour
That will so call for more?
How great are you lighting bright
…my soul in a wholesome whole?
How blessed are you touching right
…my spirit in a heartfelt yearning?
I am a Kenyan in a day
…sympathizing with meditating strugglers
…holding on to my purse through naughty streets
…meeting street sellers and hawkers at their hustling best
A reason your season has seasoned my reasoning
…lies in a fate bounded by a future
A future unknown to both you and I
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 29, 2019

UNEQUAL

Water accepts stone
Stone spits out water
Sand floors them all
…no matter how hard they hide
That should tell you
…your hard might be mad for one
…but play for the other

II
Just as goings and comings
…births and deaths
…are life’s play things
Your anger is someone’s joke
Your paralysis is someone’s moke
Your flame is someone’s smoke
Your rum is someone’s coke
Bodies write not their earns, so stay woke
…before you, a higher, badly poke

III
Tell your side
Oppress none
Let other mouths speak from the views of their eyes
Express yourself looking at your opponent as your mirror
Rant not on pain’s bought
Announce no lies like a newscasting crook
Never nurse hatred unwarranted
Call out and make up
Excellent human management rounds to encircle

IV
Our hearts are like different brands of cars
They are fed different emotions
…and process same news differently
That does not mean dogs must eat dogs
…so frogs will get things to croak on
Open mindedness has unending room
…where disagreements can battle into respected opinions
…then agreements
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Nov. 28, 2019

TESTING

Until you test
…the best will be a jest in your breast
…and be a quest in your crest
…dangling ignorance garnished with fear
But all others will see is cowardice

II
Until you test
…fog will continue acting smoke
Smoke will continue acting fog
And they will both confuse in fuse
Add white clouds as you fly high in their ignorance
…and your mind will be the ball on their field

III
So why don’t you wake your strength?
Why don’t you walk your legs
…to swing your arms
…to move your body to test?
Noses know them
…eyes can distinguish them in taste
Nothing cowers the human body
…and cripples its strength like ignorance
You might think “ignore”
…a nobility
But an ounce of it in knowledge
…constitutes a calamity
So test in quest to be abreast
…with all
To equip and to aid
…if pushed to a deadly bend
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Nov. 27, 2019

A PAINFUL ACCEPTANCE

A cow’s vows bow to machetes at the abattoir
With no questioning hows
So how will the bitterness of its better half
…block its travel to the ancestral kingdom?
Unfortunacy knows no memorandum
Disasters fault no failed promises

II
An owl’s bowel bolt not from a sauce’s bowl
No matter how wronged it is sold by day
Its others still sleep their days
…and fly their nights
Horrors scare not fair
They force their horses to their rivers
…dry them to thirst
…to force them to drink
Even sadness drains
…when life corners with needs

III
So learn to burn a turn and turn
Cry to sigh a bye and fly
Whine to mine a shine and dine
There are cracks which track our lucks to stack
And canes which stain our pains to sane
Life builds us with all
…milestones
…and regrets
And our legacies reign
…with our wins as stars
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 26, 2019

PERFECTLY MATCHED (18+)

You, I, me
… do …

Ib
They live with smiles
…locking secrets like a-never-to-be-seen ritual
Acting man and wife in mock life
Loving their real lives at the blind sides of each other

II
Kojo Mensah loves the juices that flow
…in between the thighs of Hannah
He also loves the endearing moans of Araba
And so rushes through the responsibility of marital bedmatics
…with Korkor
In his once in a while payment

IIb
The accent of Eshun gains the consent of Korkor
…for a wild working
…weekly
Rob’s huge lollipop is her morning addiction
And she gets it before she steps
…through the door of her secretarial office
Agbovi her boss, is her pocket endorser
…so she gifts out her down there
…to get what is fair
Oh Mr. Chan is her licking god
He licks it wet
…and licks it dry
…opening and closing her inner tap
…and drinking to drying each time
Wearing her body with the needed appreciation
…monthly
Yakubu gives her the long feels
…each time he comes down to the south
And her girl, Araba, helps explore her naughtiness
…in Kojo Mensah’s absence
So she pretends seeing not the lipstick stains
…the hardly graced bed
…the late nights
…and closes her ears to the gossips

III
They both do church
And go through communion
Korkor acting the ever obedient partner
Kojo acting the ever superior man

IV
Today seems to be a day the heavens scripted
…opening their closets
Like lizards in coital bliss
Korkor chances on Kojo and Araba
…in the bed of matrimony
While sucking the mouth of Yakubu
…in their near nakedness aiming for the bed
Lazers of hatred form in Kojo Mensah’s eyes
Araba’s wounded eyes shoots at Korkor
…her true love for the lass revealing
Yakubu breaks into a run
As Araba opens her mouth with a jealous key
…to spill her knowledge
“How can you do this Kor?
I know of Eshun
…and I know that Chan
You talk about Rob
…and that disgusting Agbovi
Who was that twat who looked like a pole?”

IV
Mr. Mensah tries to stand
…but his legs fail
He tries to talk
…but his mouth fails
He tries to think
…but his mind fails
So he somersaults and wakes
…at 37 to the relieved faces of the working military
And Araba

V
Araba sighs
…and leaves a note
Not a sound
…walks from her mouth
“I only endured you to have her
She knows all your others
So do I
I guess all has ended
…because your house is empty”

VI
Kojo Mensah cries
With a hurt soul
All the while saying
“Karma of a woman is at the top of the vile list
…in this hateful world”
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Nov. 25, 2019

MODELS

When eyes
…groping in the dark
See a flicker of light
They follow
…loving its visibility
…without coercion
…without force

II
When high minds
…wallowing in unworthiness
See worthy minds
…revered
They seek with their meekness
…and learn to par
This is the picture of rightness

III
Living worshippers are the model converts
…of their followed
Their deeds feed their watching
Their nots close minds of their watching
If a force is needed for your converting cause
Then you’re like sick humans
…selling the medicine of their sickness
…to one who knows so well about their well-being
The situational mockery
…needs no emphasis

IV
Coercion flaws adhesions to norms
Force causes rebellion in acts denigrating to causes
Manipulations create angst
…which in turn parcel deceit
…soiling the name of worship
So if you can’t stop,
Halt your faults and cult your vault
…of righteousness
To magnetize your target with curiosity
…and jealous identification
Just walk your talks
Observe the teachings of your Bible
Qualify your Quran with sanctimonious awesomeness
Trade your traditions
…in exemplary and attractive models
So their appeals will work on turning audiences
…into congregations
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 24, 2019

THROUGH THE ODDS

Pilots know the risk of turbulence
…but still take chances of flying
Captains know the viciousness of some storms
…but still steer boats for days
…using navigators and relying on winds
Drivers know the many accidents
…which whisper to deny them and others
…lives
…but still drive through the roads
Living is a chance of different odds
…so take it and embrace your odds

II
The odd pod
…can push a greatness nod
And cut an honourary sod
…so fear not its fearful rod
Because life sometimes hurts
…even in its happiness
Living knows no pets
If it did
…death would have excused them

III
So force through your odds
Fly through your turbulence
Navigate through your storms
Drive through your accidents
Until you reach your satisfactory destination
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Nov. 23, 2019

WO NWUMA

a.
Ɛyɛ maapɛ na ɛmaa Kwaku
…n’apɔkye din
Ne merɛ so no
Na onnim ɔbaa kitiwa
…ɔbaa kɛseɛ
…ɔbaa tiatia
…ɔbaa tintin
…ɔbaa berima
…ɔbaa warefoɔ
…ɔbaatan
mpo na w’akohunu ɔbaa yarefoɔ
Sika boa ma owurawura ayaase ahorow
…kosi sɛ ɔware ɔbaa animonyamfoɔ a ɔwɔ Krɔwaso

b.
Abaawa Afua ne Apɔnkye abakan
…kɔyɛɛ abaayowa
Abaawa Afua ne Apɔnkye Manu
…kɔyɛɛ abaayowa
Wɔ bɔɔ Mansa
…Manan
Kosi sɛ wɔn duru Ansomaa
…na wɔn pɔn awoɔ
Kwaku Apɔnkye bɔne hyɛ aseɛ so so n’adae bɔne
Ehu kyekyere no
Kɔdanda supa no
Birimbɔ kum ne bimbuo wɔ ne tiboa atɛnnee mu

d.
Ne mma no hyɛ aseɛ bobɔɔ nufoɔ pɛ
…na ɔkɔtɔɔ nkraman du bɛ wɛn ne ban ho
Ɔhyɛda tɔ nkrantɛ nufanu
…si no hwitahwita
…ɛma dawubɔfoɔ bɔ dawuro sɛ
…ɔbarima biara a obɛtu n’ani asi ne mma maa no so no
…adi a ɛbɛyɛ wɔn sene nsuomunam awerɛhosɛm
…wɔ anwa a esi gya so mu

e.
Abarimawaa baako kɔ sɔ hwɛ yɛ
…nkraman kekaa no pasaa
Ɔhohoɔ bi ne n’abakan kɔ kasa yɛ
…odi asutorɔ bɔne ma n’pantan pasa yɛ
Ne sika nti
…na Nana Bretuo koraa ntumi nka n’asɛm
Enti ne mma no nyin yɛ no
…na Krɔwaso mmarima akyiran wɔn

ɛ.
Ebi tuu wɔn din gyata mma
Ebi kekaa sɛ wɔn ho mpo nnyɛ fɛ
…enti tuu wɔ mpi sɛ Amangaa mu Apisɔ
Ebi frɛ wɔn Ammodin fiefoɔ
Krɔwaso fa too ne ho so
…bɔɔ ahohoɔ nyinaa Apɔkye fie nkaseɛ
Kosi sɛ ne mma no nyinaa bɔɔ mmerewa
Neɛ ohunu nyansa tu firi koro ne mu no
…Mansa
…ko nyaa ɛnyinam afidie akwanhyia
…wuu amonomu hɔ aaa

f.
Onyankopɔn Twerɛduampɔn aama n’anwu ntɛm
Kwaku Apɔnkye bɔ akwakora poso poso
…hunu ne mma nyinaa ankonam akwantuo wɔ asaase yi so
Esie wɔn mu num ansa ɔɔka n’ani agu so
Wei kyerɛsɛ
…obi ngu ntoosi aba ntwa brɔde duro
Sɛneɛ wo sunsum sa wo no
…saa nso na wo nwuma bɛ di w’akye
…akoduru w’awieyɛ
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Nov. 22, 2019

THE BAD HIGH SCHOOL

All venture high schools
…with tertiary or a universal goal in mind
It is a climb whose turn takes the whipping of a soul
Used-to-taste, unmaking itself is like skins in a knife peel
Blood differ
…so check yours before pushing it into a suffering
…of poisonous suffocation
Drugs brag their highs and hide their cracks
…to drag the deceived
…to its hottest hell
Hot headed human in horrid haunts,
…hault not its hitting hymns
…in a blending join

II
Not only can it catch and chew off your sanity
…as hawks do chicks
It can harm your humanity
And like inhumane pimps
…send your legs and hands on errands
…which will drown you in embarrassing embers
…when it takes over your needs
Oh drugs brag their highs and hide their cracks
…to drag the deceived
…to its hottest hell
Why will you want to join its fearsome ride?

III
I can point out Andam
…who now answers to Abɔdam
I can show you Kaafi
…whose name has changed to Ɛwi
I can march you to Nsawam
…to see the naughty Adam
…confined for his awam
…in trying to feed his drug needs
Once addicted,
…it becomes a brobdingnagian burden
…almost impossible to fight
I confidently tell you that
…drugs brag their highs and hide their cracks
…to drag the deceived
…to its hottest hell

IV
So
…why
…try
…to toe its line?
Why
…cry
…to join its quarry?
Know ye not a blast
…can break your dreams into tiny pieces?
Know ye not it can drag you
…to its hottest hell
…and throw you out like an empty shell?
Do stitch your life
…to save your nine
…even if you’re a cat
…with blessed lives of nine
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Nov. 21, 2019

POLITICAL PAWN STARS

They used to come in cat forms
…burying their wastes to kill distrust in their trusting
Now they live like goats
…caring not where their fecal balls scatter
Why is their world growing to crude through rudeness
…and forgetting the polite in the politics?
The “e” surely shouldn’t have hidden in the riding
Oh political pawn stars!
Things are knocking things

II
We see them clothed fully
…until they mount
Then we see the legs they pair
…through their kissing
Then we see the hands pushing their bodies
…through their positional filling
…and contractual undressing
Popping open our mouths
…till they get dirty as all the flies of regrets
…stain our tongues
Oh political pawn stars!
Things are knocking things

III
How they act sheep
…and graduate to lions
How they begin with bowing
…and graduate to demanding walking knees
How they begin with whispers
…and graduate to impudential blow offs
Zip the decency out of leniency
Oh political pawn stars
Things are knocking things

IV
When will they grow a constant?
When will the scary change wheel mill in a refreshing candidness?
When will their saids be their dos
…to stop the painful oows
…from anticipating throats?
Oh political pawn stars!
Things are knocking things
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Nov. 19, 2019

FROM THE EYES OF THE SITTING ELDER

Child
those who hurriedly opened their gates beneath them
…to eat from the first fruit of Adam
…to tear open their innocence
End up killing most dreams with rushing diarrhea
Becoming ghosts to success

II
Child
A young heart needs time
…to grow saucepan of maturity
…to fit onto the fires of love
So as to welcome appropriate fanning
…and stop confusing winds
So as to stop direct burns
…and get the right lid
…to protect itself from drowning
…in unexpected rains
For a heartbreak is like a bullet
…to the old
And a bomb
…to the young

III
Child
The mouths that warn have passed that chaotic stage
If you look carefully
…you can see those who rushed
…those who patiently waited to grow
…and those who just stopped to watch the rushing in jealousy
Can’t you pluck fruits of experiences
…from these classified human foods?

IV
Child
It is not all experiences that one must get
…first hand
It is not all rebellion that one must taste
…first hand
It is not all body callings
…that one must heed
…in youngsterfield
Life is a mathematical construct
…whose best formulas lie in our listening
…and watching
Utilize your blessing
…to farm the best of gardens
For your future
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Nov. 18, 2019

TO THE COMPASSIONATE

If you do love
…a struggling being
And have looked above
…their unfortunate scenes
Here –
…A HUG OF WORDS

II
If you’ve spoken
…for a voiceless mouth
And have broken
…an unfairness mark
Here –
…A HUG OF WORDS

III
You are eyes
…to a blind walker
And a shield of lies
…of their unseeing sides
Here –
…A HUG OF WORDS

IV
You do walk
…for a legless traveler
And do run
…as their danger leveler
Here –
…A HUG OF WORDS

V
Oh you think
…for an angelic thinker
And you love
…their clumsy workings
Here –
…A HUG OF WORDS

VI
You stand a big bully
…who hurts to look cool
When your mates
…fan to create an unfair fool
Here –
…A HUG OF WORDS

V
You know no colour
You know no tribe
You know all disabilities
…are different forms of abilities
You know no shame
…when you need to a wrong tame
If you’ve defended an offended apprehended
You’re the Hercules
…of a weakened soul
You’re the real Apostles
…of the compassionate God
So please come here –
…for
… A HUG OF WORDS
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 17, 2019

KISS AND TELL

0
A kiss and tell is a bad spell
Which sells a yell of a sad pearl
So bell out a tell of your kiss
…to stop the hell of disgust’s tale

a
A kiss is a bliss
Deserving no hiss to piss
…off
A Mister or a Miss
…in a shaming gist

b
A yes to a chess of playing and reporing
Paints dressing of a horrid jester
Be not a broken bedder

I
It is only those who live in perpetual pleasure needs
…who flaunt a fallen seed
…which they’ve been blessed as feed
It is only an empty heated oil
…burning with pity
…which bells so loud
…when an ingredient blesses it with its presence
It sure is only a child without love
Who loudly moans the pleasure of his food
…just to round up famished friends
So you
…dishing out blues
…to be seen as a playing true
Are famished of love
You do lack the right hobby
…which will lobby for you company

II
You’re still a crawling toddler
…if you kiss and tell
You still hoard the dirty bin of childhood
…if you kiss and tell
You sure are an attention seeker
…if you kiss and tell
You’re like a toothless dog
…trying a barking to wish scares in outsiders
…and praises from masters
…if you kiss and tell
You
…dishing blues
…rounding up ears to win a cool
…makes you an unceremonious fool

III
Real humans work their silence
…protect their dignities
…love in respect
…blow not their own horns
Even the satisfied crude
…act no vulture
…announcing their foods with their sky hovering
So you
…chirping like a cock in flight
…from its fear of nothingness
Are but a sad bull
…trying your all to be cool
…by smearing shame of your little pleasure
…probably gifted in a boring leisure
…to your very dry needs
…for scavengers to feed on
A pity it is
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 16, 2019

CHACHA

Yɛde nwomasua ɛɛto chacha
Ama ayɛ tesɛ ekro aa aprɔ sɛɛ pachaa
Asresɛm ne sɛ
…yeemia no wɔ akrɔkrɔ kwan so
Yɛbɛyɛ dɛn atu mpong?

II
Obiara nim sɛ nwomasua yɛ y’atwideɛ a
…y’ehia de afiri ahohiahia yi mu
…akosi mpuntuo kro mu
Enti deɛn nti na Ɔmama bɛ to kɔ benkum
…na Opreman ni abɛto akɔ nifa
…Ma Kwaa Agyei bɛ to kɔ sro
…ama Agya Adwo abɛtuɛ asi fam yi?

III
Yɛn ma mmra nka yɛn bra
…tesɛ nea Abokyifoɔ ka wɔn nantwie
Yɛn ma adwene ɛnha tipɔ
…tesɛ neɛ abɔfra yarefo ha n’awofoɔ no
Yɛn ma ano nkɔ kasa
…tesɛ neɛ abaa ka debɔnifo no
Efirisɛ ɔman yi yieyɔ
…gyina w’dwuma agyapadeɛ a
…w’atikɔ nfa nkɔwura owuo bɔn mu
Wo ne me nan so
…na nkyirima bɛfro ne wɔn amanaman nfɛfo
…apiri atepen wɔ daakye mmerɛ mu
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 15, 2019

WOES OF A BROKEN SEEDED MOTHER

It is hard
When it dawns on you and your sky turns dark
It is bad
When you look and see that a difference does mark
You can never park
Even as the world chases you to the ends of the mad
Oh woes of a broken seeded mother!

II
Even in acceptance struggle
Pointed fingers use blame to strangle
And in an in-cry
…many suggestions demand for many a try
Each has their meaning for her flawed blessing
Most throwing shades for her demeaning
Oh woes of a broken seeded mother!

III
She is the witch that earth needs to ditch
…to some minds
She is the offender who must so plead
…to some minds
She is the womb which marks for tombs
…to some minds
Chained by the hatred that hangs around her
She still needs a focus on her broken
Oh woes of a broken seeded mother!

IV
Days drag on!
Nights are unkind!
The present does mock!
The future oh scares!
The past act scar!
Regrets do whip!
Still, one mind needs to work harder
…to tend a struggling innocent
…in unmeeting ends
…a boiling emotions
…hopeless devotions
…and many commotions
Oh woes of a broken seeded mother!

V
She is a machine
…which knows no tiredness
She is mountain
…which feels no feet stamping
She must wear smiles
…for tutoring trees
She has no words for societal acceptance
Sickness is a luxury
…she never can afford
Oh woes of a broken seeded mother!

VI
She turns a garden
…which pests do prey
Can she dodge spiritual fraudsters?
…Unless she wishes to be an open dish of witchcraft
…on societal plates
Can she swerve the elders
…and their many concoctions?
Unless she wants to be a ritual puppet
…to meet slaps of seers
…through to judgements of unmerciful gods
Can she swerve the hounds of directions
…by even ignorant minds?
…Unless she wants to be chased
…by guilt soldiers
Oh woes –
…Woes of broken seeded mother!

VII
She may have to apologize
…for her broken seed
She may have to be jilted
…for her problemed body
She may have to be shunned
…so other seeds stay safe
She may be hanged on a cross
…of unending accusations
Oh woes!
…Frightening woes of a broken seeded mother!

VIII
Friends might get tired
…of her eternal strife
Benefactors might hide at her shadow
…and make her a plague
She may turn the “don’t-be-like”
…in the fortunate’s advising
She is built a hell on earth
…by family through to her nation
And burned slowly
…to either murder
…choose suicide
…abandon
…or run mad to prove the bet of her badness
Even the strongest becomes a living corpse
…working like a bull
…through it all
Getting all back bending and grave energy
With fountains of tears
…as her veinal blood
Even the little sympathy seems like warning shots
These are the woes of a broken seeded mother
…on this golden land
Filled with the compassionate
…and many a hospitable souls
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 15, 2019

THE FATE CROW

The fate crow
Tore and flew a con
That fear creeps
Traumatizing folks like crazy
Tell the farmers in crew
Their forces need to close

II
As skies turn mask for the heavens
And Satan turns mark of deceptions
As sorries troll more for the hells
And stories trick men into dominion
Tell the fate crows
Who tore and flew the con
That their forces need to close

III
Terror now triumphs over truth
Falsity flocks like fleas with fearsome fires
Impudence insults innocence
While winners wear their wretched wrecks
Tell the fate crows
Who tore and flew the con
That their forces need to close

IV
No farmer holds a machete
And watches on as their walking sticks tower
…way above them
When their hands do the holding
And their legs help with its locomotion
So –
Tell the fate crows
Who tore and flew this con
That their forces need a close
So our family can stay close
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Nov. 14, 2019

SYSTEMS THAT NEVER WORK

Imagine owning a sun that never shines
…clouds that never rain
…air which never blows
It is like systems that never work

II
Imagine having a dryer which never heats
A piano without a sound
A guitar without strings
A spoon which cannot fetch a thing
They’re just like systems that never work

III
What about lavender with no scent?
The earth without a ground?
The sky without its blue?
Trees without their leaves?
Talk less of trees without fruits?
They’re just like systems which never work

IV
We’re like machines wasting our fuel
Labouring without fruits
We’re like shells without lives
Blown by feet in sands of self deceit
No matter how great we are
…if we live not the talk
We’re like shadows in perpetual darkness waiting for others to light our inner powering
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 13, 2019

THE LOVE EXPERIMENT

Sometimes when two hearts stand at a sharing junction
They become an unparallel duo
The more expressive
…the less retaining
The less expressive
…the more retaining
That is why hurts stay longer in the latter
…in an abrupt end

II
They are like sand and clay
Although water quickly seeps through sand
Clay takes its time to receive water
…and keeps it in its inner
…making it part of its particles
Eyes of sages see the loving plant
…they sew in the hearts of their slow others

III
Their mouths will say no
…whiles their hearts scream yes
Their faces will forcefully frown
…whiles their eyes cry out
Their mouths will cuss out
…as their minds bleed
…begging for the doctoring of their expressive others
Those slow to love
…fall hard and love most
Even after their hosts give up
…at their own cost
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 12, 2019

SICK

There is a trick to know the sick in the quick
So leave no traces with temper

II
Obsession and aggression can’t always equal cantankerousness
Competitive possessiveness
…and by force need to top
…aren’t always traits of conceitedness
When a human acts lion in a sphere where even
…a cat trait can easily win
Put on your glasses and rate his class of normalcy
Your observation might repair a torn fuse
…in a sufferer’s upper room

III
We are in a world where each carries their horrors
So quick judgement must have brakes
…in your thoughts even in cases of attack
For the suffering mostly show their worst
…to those their hearts crave
…hoping for a save from their horrid caves
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 11, 2019

MOTHERING A MONSTER

Mothering monsters must make merry mournful
…in memory

II
Mothering monsters might mock most
…who moved mountains to make money
…to mum those many moments

III
How does it feel
To watch as the world
Brands your beloved as unfeeling steel
Armed with justifiable evidence?

IV
How does it feel
To watch the world
Rightfully weed out your seed
…like a poisonous plant
Amidst jubilations which farms your sadness?

V
How does it feel
To lose your beloved
…as the world cheers your haunting fears
Driving on the best clearance
…on a applaudable road?

VI
Mothering a monster might be the murder of mercy
…from a higher power
Because it sure is hard
…stifling tears so the world sees no sorrow
When your abdomen reminds you of birth cramps
…your intestines drag you through anxietal loss
…your head battles your heart as to attack
…or defense of your own
You sure are to be pitied as your internals bleed
…in the face of jubilation of your loss
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Nov. 10, 2019

STIFLED

N
Need is what you’ve made yourself
I ride on you
…like a cross on a horse
And you gallop my thoughts
…to caves that save words to pave awesome ways
…for my muse
And create pain for my body’s abuse
Never nested in a nauseous novelty like yours

I
Interesting is your silence
Dark mysteriousness your gifting sounds
…crickety
…owly
…barks like cracks into wandering spirits
They lock me in your room of artistry
Though fear hawks its talks

G
Growling stomach
Eyes quickly blink and search
Nose opens wide at work
Neck turns to every sound’s direction
While legs use buttocks to pivot their turnings
You’ve got to be a myth in a quirky shift

H
How do I focus on God’s timetable
…to clean eyes when you’ve killed its rest?
How do I wipe the sweat of anxiety
When you’ve woven a hell of difference
…for my sole soul?
How do I slip in to flip the normal’s trip
Why am I the only guarding bird
…on this house branch
How do I see me in a be whose key
…has no known fee?
Just how?

T
To think that I cringe
…while the world sings
To think you’re a game many chase in a prayerful hunt
To think that I’m a Shero thanks to my resting zero
To think that I’m a stitch of abnormal norm!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
And the theoritical shouts that never fit practicality!

M
Mere men murmur my manliness
But know not the fire on which you have me wired
Mere mortals muse about my craziness
When the space of time rhymes my crankiness
I cry to have what they barely know they have
As they cry for what you and I know is a wrestling work
Will God ever be a happy creator?

A
Adjustment is good
…but eyes don’t lie
Appointment is emancipating
…but heart runs tired
Albeit I’m but one of your few chosen heads
…hawking provocations with their emblems
On night pans

R
Re-shake your options
…and help my directions
Remake your geniuses and change my classes
Re-pick your sticks to light your gifts
Shifts are needed in a kneading mould
…every now and then

E
Eden of the dark
Excellent inks that cuttingly mark
You confiscate my sanity
To elongate my humanity
You rusticate my norms
Just to suffocate my conformity
Won’t a blend help you trend in my impressions?

S
Ssssssssss
Shhhhhhhh
Serpents amidst sheep!
Fangs in angles!
Fires in cornered trenches!
Claws in reaches!
Whips for strips!
Wretches in stretches!
Shouts in bouts aiming clouts at the heat!
Save my soul
From these chains of coals!
For fame is a name which tames no body
…in rot race
I love to live and live right
…in this suitcase of transiency
Before I’m opened and pushed out
…to fall wherever
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 9, 2019

ƐYƐ W’AKOSUA KUMA?

Nana Nyame Totrobonsu
…nyansa sene ade nyinaa nti na
…obi Akosua kuma nnyɛ obi anum no
Enti neɛ ɛmrɛ atukwan abɛduru wɔ nyansa mu yi
…a kwajo hoho adwene gu so te wo nyansa so yi
…wo nhunu sɛ, sɛbi, nkwaseɛ nwansena ɛɛguro wo nsɛmka ho?

II
Kyerɛsɛ Kwame Asikuma
…bɛtumi asi n’agɛgɛ mu
…agu aba wɔ ɛmmaa du ayaase
…agye nnamu nson no nyinaa a “papa” mbata ho abodin
Nso tɛkrɛma biara nkyerɛ n’ase wɔ b’adwamu,
Mpo sɛ ne bɔne sene adebɔnefo nyinaa deɛ a,
…firi sɛ otua dua
Akosua nkoa kɔ so aba krɔ firi n’ahosɛpɛ mu a
…w’adane duawa a ɛwɔ sɛ amanfoɔ we wɔ nkunkɔn so?

III
Krakyi
…obiara asaase nna ɔbaa biara ayaase
Na w’akɔ tena hɔ tesɛ abɛnsuo dua ase
…akɔ kyerɛ mmra ase
…de apɛ n’animguase
Ɔbarima biara a ɔkyerɛ mmaase
…tesɛ tuuse a yɛde ɛkɔ ma Kaase
…wɔ ne dam akuara ase
…a yɛfrɛ hɔ Bɔdamase
Enti nhwehwɛ nnaseɛ nfiri onyansani biara apata ase
Efiri sɛ w’akyerɛ ɔbaa bi ase
…de agu n’anim ase

IV
Sɛ ɔbaa bi ano a ɛda n’ayaase
…yɛ w’ano a wo de kɔ mukaase-
…a, mesrɛ wo
…ka w’ano tum
…na ka wo se si so
Sɛ ɛhɔ nso yɛ wo Okuafo nsuo a ɛpata wo nsukɔm a
…ɛneɛ agya
…gye ho ban na pɛ krado bi fa kɔ to mu
Ɛma ɛmmɛ tena abɔnten mmue wo dede gya
…nfrɛfrɛ nkurasedwene wɔ mmerɛyefoɔ tirimu
…ɛmfa nsɛi adwene pa

V
Mmere atukwan abɛduru anibue mu
Enti ma w’adwene nso ntene nyansafidie mu
…na ɛmɛduru ɛnɛ yi faahodie mmrɛ mu
Na hunu sɛ
…ɔbaa biara kura ne homam faahodie safoa
Sɛ wɔn bɛbue wɔn ayaase
…tesɛ ɛkwan a ɛkɔ Efiduase
…ama wɔn a ɛbɔ dondo abɛ goro wɔn Antoakyire wɔ hɔ o
Sɛ wɔbɛ kɔ akɔbɔ dawuro wɔ Ankaase
…ama abɛtiri a ɛwɔ ntini nyinaa
…abɛ twa wɔn asaase wɔ wɔn ayaase o
Ɛnnyɛ wo ho mframa
…n’abɛyɛ w’asɛm
Enti pɛ nsakrayɛ pɔ bi bɔ to wo ti mu na ma yɛ ndwene
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Obubuo 8, 2019

AN OUTCAST

Ia
Sparkly stars in close proximity
…force eyes to close
…with threats of blindness
Even the intensity of a fire’s heat
…determines the space between skins and their flames
Higher souls suffer because their tougher spirits overpower all
Causing the plight of most outcasts

Ib
He walks through the whispers
…with unknown sources
And tries not to look into eyes
…shouting “go and die”
Barely dodging legs intentionally placed
…like mischievous trippers
…hoping to cause him a fall for ridicule
That was what he had to go through as an outcast

II
He might have looked a little different
Might have acted a little different
Might have spoken a little differently
But he had a space that needed not the hatred
…sprayed to make him a pest
…on their prideful blooms
Every hot topic had his name as a garnish
Every bad plot had him acting as subject
Every punishable blame was in his name
Wetting him with a fame of shame
That is what he had to go through as an outcast

III
It was obvious the many jealousies acting up
…to shut him down
It was obvious the many fears
…of he taking the shine
…of many wannabes
It was glaring the many hearts
…yearning for his weird prowess
I guess the mighties are mostly made rags
…before climbing their future stools
…to be crowned to rule their ex-bullies
Many have gone through horrors as outcasts

IV
So now he sits as they fan him with praises
He says nothing but gets everything he wants
He gets to be worshipped
…because he killed the urge to end his pain
…bursting out of his suffering
…into this awesomeness
The shine of greatness causes a whine
Which whirls minds like twines
….seconds into minutes into hours into days
…months and years
So live through it
Be happy with it
Kill not the body which carries your sought after soul
For none ordinarily hates on the ordinary
Unacceptability is the first sign of the extraordinary
Collective cruelty is the second sign of greatness
The fear of the aura of revered personalities
…makes many a weak minds work tricks
…to squash their shine
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 9, 2019

THE TRUE RULE OF POWER

As you swing your power sling
…like a king with no end strings
And enjoy as your people sing
As you treat them like your mere things
Remember, the bells to your tenure ring
And time will fling you off no matter how hard you cling
Because power’s wings fall off a shoulder to the next
…without so much as a look backwards
That is the true rule of power

II
At its peak
…it towers to self importance shower
…and empowers to shine a fear which forces others to cower
Subduing but piling hatred in heaps
…in furious hearts
The wise threads carefully to buy less enemies on a power tower
So be no thoughtless
…buying enemies by planting foul seeds with your deeds
Because when power overturns
…it leaves its dismounted with a helpless vessel
That is the true rule of power

III
Today can be gay
But tomorrow might hold a bullet in the stray
So take off your hat of heartlessness
…replace your crown of cruelty with care
…serve not your stool like a tool
…meant to turn all fools
Because when power hops to another’s top
It can turn cop to drill its former home to a pulp
That is the true rule of power
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 7, 2019

GROSS DEFENSIVENESS

It is laughable
When a hand throws a ball to a wall
…and it bounces back to hit his face to a fall
Only for the hand to point at the wall
…and curse a cruelty!
It is gross
…when one builds a bed of thorns
…and is made to test its softness with his skin
Only for “unfairness”
…to walk out of his mouth to start a prosecution
…of consciences

II
He claimed the light in her eyes
…centered his stage
The horns of her breast
…toothed loudly his name
The sweetness of her mouth
…developed an aroma
…which pierced through his nostrils
…in a beckoning that his reckoning couldn’t refuse
And to add salt to injury
…her voice dug all the goosebumps
…from his pleasury needs
…to empty his hunger for a feed
He claimed his last horseback breakage
…was the smoothness of her exposed thighs
…which put bullet in his gun
…into a wake he knew not existed
A wake which overtook him to take a cake
…that belonged not to him
…to shred to his satisfaction
Forgetting he held the keys to all his senses
…all through

III
He forgot of the marital tool
…he turned into a pickaxe
…by turning God into a fool
To cruelly dig into the waist of an innocent head
Digging into destruction the minerals of
…love
…trust
…courage
…tenderness
…and happiness
Replacing them with
…anxiety
…hatred
…fear
…mistrust
…cowardice
…and sadness
To think he was a trusted friend of her household!

IV
There is a derangement that comes with defending
…an abuse used to murder the soul of another
There is a lack of normalcy
…in the fallacy of seduction
Which firewood of provocation
…lights without the intention of a self thunder?
I wonder!

V
Let the world be fair!
Please let the world be fair!
So people can’t snatch fruits meant not for them
…and spew foolishness of artificial hunger in their defense
Let this world honour the wombs that built them
…by killing brutal ills against their mothers
Ills that bring chills even from written quills
For we have traveled too far
…to host this primitiveness of minds
…going bonkers at a sight
We all know each holds a will
…that never shakes without self permissiveness
So the earlier we wake brutes with deserving punishments
The better our heaven building will be
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 6, 2019

THAT LITTLE BIRDIE

Clouds that hang and never fall
…block the shine of the sun
…monopolizing the sky in a catastrophic doom
So –
…bullet that bothersome birdie
…to break the ills that speed
…with the air into people’s ears
Causing suspicions left
…right
…up
…down
…and scattering the center with its mass weapon
…of breaking trust

II
It was that little birdie
Who broke Fiko’s marriage
All it had to do was whisper into Obaa Yaa’s ears
…that in between Asikuma’s thighs
…was Fiko’s second home
The poor man who was just the betweener for Kwaa Bruku
…could do nothing
…to put out the anger of his beloved
…and lost her

III
Wasn’t it that same little birdie
…which took the whole of Fanteakwa hostage
Forcing each body to hide with their souls
…by whispering into Nana Krotoa’s ears
…that a monster is going to pass through
…and will devour every being it saw?
Oh! I still remember hiding indoors for a week
…as a visitor in my sister’s house
But for Abena Mensuro the drunk
We’d have died from starvation

IV
That same little birdie caused Mama Ama Akyea’s miscarriage
In this here Asikrom
Remember it whispered into her ears
…that her husband had perished in the accident
…that claimed several lives two years ago?
Poor woman’s shock overturned her pot
…emptying it instantly

V
What about Kwakye’s loss in last year’s elections?
Wasn’t it because of this same little birdie?
Till date, none knows the ears which heard
…and the mouth which started the rumour
…that he was an occultist who would use us to perfect his plans
All we know is a little birdie
…acting mastermind of his trouble
See how this village suffers
…under Koo Nsafoa!

VI
So I am shocked at how you stand here
…right in front of me like a wounded lion
Telling me about the whispers of that little birdie
…claiming I have done this and done that
Help us kill that little birdie
To free this village of its mischief
You surely know it
…if its beak serenaded your ears with my flaws
Please help us
…help us rid this kro off that little birdie
So we can breathe without twisted ghosts
…reading our normalcy and translating and transmitting them
…in abnormal mode
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 5, 2019

ONE AT A TIME

Amonu used her two eyes
…to look into a bottle
…and saw nothing
Abochi used an eye
…to look in same bottle
…his other eye closed
And saw its content
Greed breeds seeds unfeeding

II
There are beautiful sights we lose
…when each eye roams at will
…this looking left
…that looking right
So focus not on many a bogus
Assemble your thoughts to a thing
…before another
So no detail hides to push a failure
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Nov. 4, 2019

BLAME GAMES

i. Armed robbers
ii. Citizens
iii. Entrepreneurs
iv. Politicians
v. Ghosts

i
Dem dey claim we be murderers!
…Satan im workers!
…wicked foks!
…society demma bother!
…trɛts? Na wetin be dat? Ha!
When we be the sad football wey dey dis life field im top
Ino be life every one wan live?
Wetin free for this business inside?
We fit know the yeryer wey go commot our living?
We fit calculate the money wey we go use morrow?
We fit stay one place for long?
We all go be v to live hier
Gyare, na you go school, make you talk demma sumtin

ib
Make you no mind dem
They sit and grade with materialism
Gifting all the juices of life to the succeeded
And treating the have-nots as failures
And they say what?
Isn’t this world a jungle?
Must we sit for hunger to fit on us
…weak robes
…and push us into death’s prisons
…when we can seize to clean its grease?
How did us victims become culprits?

ic
They can’t see!
They can’t see the feet of their religious gods
…who are our colleagues in deed
…but robe their rawness with God’s word
They refuse to know!
They refuse to know of the lies
…walking from mouths of their poll tricksters
…whose deeds feed off their skins
…more than ours
…when we are the truth in the life
…they need to worship and respect
Why must curses be our portion?

ii
We live in fear of i
As the iii squeeze our sweats
…iv pile problems on our breathlessness
…and v sit on our fences
…breaking them down with their weight
Funny
…they all come from within us
But act v to push all blames on us
Only to turn to call us the v

iib
How can we build a developmental road
…to push plans in smoothness
…to the paradise we covet on others?
They will say we’re our own enemies
They will say we refuse to help
They’ll say we seldom support
…because our busy mouths deafen their meditation
…but they deafen us to climb their podiums
…and deafen us to stay on higher stages
…flipping our pages and building cages with our adages
How unfair!

iii
iv chase us with their greed
ii curse us in their need
As i hunt us for their feed
How can we succeed?
Do we need to turn v to stop our bleeding?

iiib
At least we’re feeding their nation
…and building a sane station
…for their global ovation
I mean our global ovation
Well…
…no matter how low the sounds of the claps
…we’re still bridging the gaps
We care less about their many traps
Who are they without us?
Those leaches!

iv
We work hard to get here
But they call us liars
Even if we are, who pushes us to lie?
Those bloody ii!
They care not about truths
They only know the language of falsehood
And only tend to their present stomachs
Always forgetting their tomorrows
…until they arrive on pathetic trains
How should that be our fault?
And those bloody iii sucking us dry
…on tickets of helpful manipulations!

ivb
Almost all of them drag us into their situations
Using their waists as catapults
…to stone down lives only to drag us to see
…their end games
…forcing us to provide fire, saucepans, water, spices
…to help cook them into delicacies
They drag us into their loss
…making as throw our earnings into tombs
…which never fertilize any farm!
They appear in our resting places
…with their haunting needs
…forcing us to shoot them with our needed bullets
Still, they complain of the drains that remain clogged
The dollar that imprisons the cedi
The corruption which swallows our growth
When they never give our souls rest
…and buy artificial grey for our youthful hair
…if they don’t weed them bald!
How frustrating!

v
We’re here
Even without bodies
We know we replace the hands that dig the coffers!
We are the legs that create the coughers by playing dusts!
We’re the cougars sucking dry the juices
…of our youth
We’re the representatives of the devil
…responsible for every mishap
We’re the thorns drinking the blood of a nation
…we belong not
Weird!
And we have no bodies!
How odd is the fear they have for us
…against their reverence for our known models?
How are they able to mould thoughts
…to bring us to life
When they can’t even build plans
…to burn their rots?
We’re the real victims of their idiocy!
Sad that we’ve no bodies to sue this injustice!
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Nov. 3, 2019

THE COMMUNITY GOOSE

None asked how much the moon’s death yielded
…him
None asked his needs
None even asked how he fared
All they needed were theirs
…and theirs
…and theirs
Adding anger to his fears
…of stepping on toes
…with his tired words

II
He was the community goose
…a gander given a womb of provision
…to lay in satisfaction of all
The
“…take this akyɛke
…have this pesewa
…I brought you this meal
…give this to your mother”
While he was in grooming had an end price
…he knew not

III
Then
Each came with their stomachs
…wanting their fill
When the moon died
All living and dead family members
All far and near neighbours
All old and young
All royals and their servants
He became the community goose
Who must lay satisfactory eggs
…to feed each and every one of his people

IV
But the moon’s death gave so little
…as a chalk holder
So many hawks got no chicks from his bosom
…talk less of fresh eggs to hunt
He lighted smiles and formed darkness
…on both known and unknown faces
And got many gifts in his modest bed
…from targeters who wanted him bounded by law

V
Protecting his man
…made him wander into different waist forests
…and planted many seeds
Compounding his problems
So he bought the rope
And wrote his piece before journeying

VI
When night reached the shores of dawn
And his face had not been shown
The womb that carried him felt strange
…and called the villagers
His letter was found
And the only other head following in his steps
…Yaa Kumiwaa
…the p.6 pupil
Read his gloomy tale of being the carrier
…of the village whose weight burdened his soul
They all run into the forest
…and formed groups to search

VII
The vultures led them to their sought
And they found him hanging
…tongue out of mouth
…weight on a branch
The guilty tree shamefully shook as if to protest any accusation of wrong
The people of Yɛdieɛ learnt too late
…after losing Kwame Kodie
That too much weight breaks even the toughest pot
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia ©Nov. 2, 2019

NSƐMSƐM

Ei!
…Mmɛnsɛm tumi de takashi furo nyanberansɛm
…ko si adefokrom
…ɛma akronkronfo nante kɔ tɔ ahohiahia kokomu
Agyawaadwo!

2
Hwɛ sɛ abirekyie akɔka ɛgya ato obi fie mu
…afa ne ho adi
…ama odwan akɔka obi nsuo agu
…ama abaa atu ne honam sɛɛ ho
…awe!

2b
Hwɛ sɛ ɔkraman adi abaa yiaw
…ɛnam efi a mframa ɛɛkyekyɛ ho
…ama aboa prako ɛde ne ho fi eeyi akyea
…wɔ n’atɛnbuo ase!

2d
Akuturuku a ekum akura no
Yɛ agyinamoa tiriho koto
Nanso ɛyɛ gyata anim akotoakotoɔ
Ɛyɛ mmɔbɔ sɛɛ!
Mmera de pɛyɛ daadaa nnipa
…dane wɔn mmoadoma a wɔ te nnwuramu
Kyerɛsɛ
…awieyɛ no
…ahoɔden na yɛde bu bim
…san de bu fɔ
Ɛyɛya sɛ aboa dabodabo nni ano wɔ akromah
…ne ɔkɔdeɛ krom
Aaa
…me werɛ afi sɛ ɛhɔ yɛ dabodabo nso kro
…nanso n’ataban ahoɔdene ntumi mfa no nkɔ sie wiemu
…sɛ bɔne nnya nan gu ne so a
Onibiɛ
…su ma dabodabo wai
…efirisɛ ɔyɛ wo sɛsoɔ wɔ ɔbra ahwehwɛ mu
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 1, 2019

YOUR THOUGHTS (For Hon. Abla Dzifa Gomashie)

I’d like to be a vein in your thoughts
To see what sadness for you has got
To know what your weeping soul has bought
…for your many thoughts

II
I’d like to be in your thoughts
To hear the horrors in your heart
As the call for casket closure booms
Do your hurts now fully zoom to gloom a doom?

III
I’d like to be in your skin
To know where the bumps of fear birth
For I know this feeling
And I ache for your body
…whose mind can’t mind floating comfort
…whose heart can’t hear any better keeps
…whose eyes see the mouth of the earth
…opening to feed on one half of you

IV
I’d like to be in your stomach
To hold the thunders that are striking
And their clouds of loneliness raining
Knowing the bed that only two shared
…has been divided, one on earth, one beneath
…for a lifetime

V
I won’t console
For that fills no hole
I won’t come close
For that gives no closure
I won’t act out
Because I know not the needs of your grief
But I sit here among your people
Hoping you think of it as a storm
…bound to calm
No matter how scary
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © November 1, 2019

A CANDLE IN THE DARK

Here we are, in this camp of Burma
Again, pushing the left overs of the human hawk
Into the dust which waits to blend
A lover in the whirlwind of emotions, wife in utter strife
Family in the turmoil of loss
Friends in the loss of laughter
And onlookers
…wrapped in thoughts of their ends
…where it will be
…how it will be
…what will cause the be
Though no eye can see

II
This picture shows what we are
…leaves on this tree of life
Shedding ourselves when our seasons end
As our dears look on

III
But we will work our way down
…and rise in hearts
Having done all we can
…in contribution to memories
…uneraseable
For death’s importance is its ability to remind us
…of the transiency of our existence

IV
Rest well
Our dear Ahiaglo
And turn angel to guard and guide your earthly companion
Who has so much more to give
Before your reunion
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © Nov. 1, 2019

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