In Ghana, the sun always sets Now elephants, coconut trees The cockerel, the sun All battle to topple the umbrella II Some call it the leaking umbrella Which has been bribed by nature’s delicacies To cancel its safety obligation Some call it the weak emblem Blown in shame by winds of corruption Some call it […]
Hide and seek Is what they play The sun and moon seem very meek With a hide each slay With appearance they speak, freak, leak and peek Every second is their stirring day II We trust and curse as we seek They jump and hide as they play Hide and seek We dock, we clay […]
Maybe you were too forward in your approaches Maybe you were born with ideas too “future-ristic” Maybe you were too over zealous in your quest for the best Maybe you hoped for far too much But your works remain a legacy II You were rains on the raging fires of colonialism You were a power […]
Mama Africa’s curves for her beautiful carvings Is also part of her starvings I can’t believe the multitudes Of capable minds, which have been smoked like fishes Slapped like idiots Raped like animals and Burnt like firewoods in hot kitchens II Minds which could have stopped her looting Minds which could have clothed her nakedness […]
No matter the defect No grave shaming is correct Imagine a human feeling like an insect Calm solving gives effect Shaming like a bouncy ball can deflect So please perfectionist, do reflect And carve a suitable dialect For a newbie with defect Your affection will grow that reflect And reflection will avoid future neglect And […]
We bask in the masses’ dirty clay And taint out royal thrones of grace Fearing whisperings which eye our ways We taint and taint until fate does faint II We drink from the masses dirty well And help in their sachet dirty sells Fearing hurts of eyes which look in strangeness We drink and drink […]
When a storm uproot mighty trees And catches the seas in its palms and splatters Causing sands to hug in marriage As its anger burns shelters to ashes, Only brave hearts can brave the storms II When chaos sings a duet with pain And clapping eyes throw punches insane Hurts cover possibility of gain Like […]
Abena says Kwaku Bonsam is a liar He feeds on lies And hoards them in his bloated belly He needs mere friends as brothers and cousins He needs his ugly face as handsome He needs his piggy beddy bounces As the best ride on a smooth road II Bonsam says Abena feeds fat on lies […]
Wasted humans are like human nails Those scratching gently Are replaced in days No one recognises their importance Teeth murder them at will Blades are their wicked cut throats While cutters are like their doom judges So scratch deeply in light as hard as you can Not on other skins But on minds So that […]
Take me there, There, to the place where truth and lies meet And leave me there II I will stand there, There, at the place where truth and lies meet Until time’s sun rise fully on them III Time’s sunshine will show the chameleon there, There, at the place where truth and lies […]
When craving pangy bells did rang She lovingly caressed to ease the stress Fuming and threatening that which gnawed With laws which seemed outlawed To make me see that one is flawed When he, she or it, gets to my bad side Increasing love was never cherished Until the mouth of the grave opened And […]
Even without the cock The hen does its wake Pecking and pecking For its children’s sake Opening its wings When danger does bake A piece here, a piece there An angel in the wake II When sticks are coming It does shout for all to run When chicks need afternoon roosting It sits and forms […]
Ring riding rims that roll Wretched realms roll wretched wreck Riding and ringing reads reaping rains “Ray has got a ray that say he’s gay” As in happiness in life which never ends So ring ring ring your bell Riding rims that roll and flow Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia (c) 2015
A mumble in the jungle Is no fumble to be humble It is a trap of a triangle To cage you in a crucible No need to yourself entangle By a mumble in the jungle Shhh, there are many empty crucibles With ears on the ground for a mumble So yes, mumbles feed the crucibles […]
There was a kind hearted man Who had a very rugged can And used the burrowed name of Dan To have many an aimless fan II He used a perfect pun When he wanted to show he can And bragged “my can does show I can Because my can still lives like a can” III […]
I live in a skirt A skirt zipped tightly to seal To seal as a present for the deserved I’m not renting out Definitely no to-lets II I know in rat holes Many moles can be placed To trap the hole lords But this zipped hole is not a rat hole Serving as a play […]
Fireflies are hiding their fires Knowing well that dark always hires Living amidst the normal as desired A fly here, a fly there in evenness II Be a firefly Know when to glow Be like a river, know when to flow Even if it’s difficult you just try Or try being a butterfly Amoafowaa Sefa […]
Rose buds Together Sell beauty II A peel A fall And beauty wanes III Must be hard To depart in peeling Falling apart On different grounds IV Glad that we are humans Who can be brought back As a flower bud Even when we peel and fall On different grounds Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia (c) 2014
Long ago, When we sat by the fireside, And watched our shadowed selves On the mirrored ground By the side of the full moon, Grandma told me to look up And watch keenly the full moon Knowing not what she meant, I looked and told her I saw only a stain of clouds She smiled […]
LIFE Sublime Contorted II Wires of recklessness Tangling and tearing breaths I fret at its thoughts always III Help me through in laughter not pain Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia (c) 2014
Illuminated She stands in crepuscular Knowing not her next Would the next be day? Would it be absolute night? She stands scared waiting One would be tempted To think her light would stand out Blinding grave darkness But no, only she Sees her […]
For a hole to hide its finger When nobody is watching It shuns its precious little wingers And goes hunting in a sunny scorching It knows it is in danger But thinks of the warm little hole It dreams of the finger in a manger And desires […]
Prekese and dawadawa Unlikenesses in rawness Loved refined Momoni and Koobi Nose irritants in the process of refinement Delicacies in refinements By being in the sand And getting stepped on Gold walks through shame To attain fame In the eyes of the refined Amoafowaa […]
The bird cries at night Begging for more humane rights To fly like a kite Yes fly like a kite When the sun is shining bright To feel the cool breeze It is so glaring That guns thirst for its poor blood When the sun […]
Sorry, In the heat of the fire And the temper of the sticks Say sorry to calm the stakes With the heat of anger And the thirst of the guns Say sorry to calm the stakes Caught in the hunger Of the cutlass and the heat of […]
My mind and my heart clash And in their most horrendous bash They win in turns The heart mellows and turns The head stands firm And squirm It ends up with the heart wanting The head weighing So what is this? I want you I fear you I need you But my head can’t […]
The farmer who planted you Tends more to others And you feel so wronged? Heal with zeal A thorn from another flower or an insect Pricked your beautiful leaf And made a worldly see through hole? Heal with zeal You’re shortened When you can be tall Because your sky has been blocked by […]
The hands which frets The eyes which call for want The head which battles the heart The tongue which yearns to taste The legs which move and complain of pain The ears which draw attention and hurt The nose which smells good and bad alike Other organs we always wish to satisfy Are all cooking […]
They swam in competition for the eggs And won their race Just hoping for some pecks So they bore all the cramping and escaped from sicknesses’ chase Only to come to the shore To realize they boarded the wrong vehicles Now what? No matter the many walks one will take You see some […]
Cats and rats Stay in opposite rays They clap and slap Their eyes on each other; Rats desperate in outwitting Cats desperate for food “No offence intended No defence for the weak” Is the slogan of cats “No place for slacking” Be a cat or a smart rat Chances are, you live full Or you […]
Do it to perfection The needed direction Which will take me to that mansion Do it to perfection By not going against your instruction To cause any commotion Do it to perfection The words which wow the congregation And gain you much affection Because I’m open eyed in this mansion Looking for […]
In the comfort of the dark With a gentle stream of light In the sea of silence With a perfect mind scenery In the chaos which surrounds With no ears but mouths at war At fears stroke and pity’s mope With emotions rushing up and down In the perfect city of […]
Associators are interested in the past Money makers are interested in the future So I used to look back; Back to a place I could not hold And into the future; Looking into what I could never see And ended up in the same place, Juggling between two poses Past and future As time placed […]
I’ve come from far Far, far from alien lands I swam from the ocean of life Onto a hardened ground Sans clothes, sans pride Tears being my only escape I slept, then sat, then stood Then walked, then took to my heels And I’m still running From a toddler, I jumped into childhood Then […]
I hold a calabash You are the well Thirst has visited my being, Parching my throat, And controlling my breath Please open up And let this calabash Taste a little of you And be satisfied so I can have the rest If not, please hold this mouth and feed my thirst. Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia […]
Whatever you see Comes with a fee But the hand that pushes into the earth Takes no fee You can turn You can burn You can sit, spit and kill You are bound to be slaughtered like the hen So much for good living When a fall causes land seeping Let’s open our […]
An oven when the sun fumes A freezer when the rain spews Chaotic battlefield when tempers rise Pauper worshippers without shame in the light But true serenity stays in Tamale Strong muscles dazzle at work Loud voices call for customers Angry consumers get into their own way Fuming and cursing the patient ones But affordable […]
They hear “fuck you bitches You ain’t shit, damn you bitches, am ma fuck you” But clad in skimpy clothes And shake their properties As overdosed dopers slap squeeze them like unripe mangoes How can you betray your kind, Insult them and brand them useless By dancing to your insults and theirs? Tears of disbelief […]
Never meeting its production, A machine lied cold Disobeying instruction And its defiance showed All productions went in the way Of other machines which were ready But this machine had nothing to say And looked keenly but had nothing to study Its master got angry And stopped its oiling And told all and […]
Exhausts venomously deplete I cannot stand many’s tune as they fashionably compete Unseen fumes from coolers happily maim While inventions to revive crops have a common aim Of hurting the rivers of my eyes And changing its colours with their respective dyes Bones of machines lie on my flesh and heavily pinch The little hair […]
Under the veil Sits filth which is being washed to no avail Under the veil Hides a naughty machine which is always on a sail Under the veil Cries a toothless path shouting for a mail Under the veil Lies the deception, which when caught cannot be bailed Under the veil […]
Stories are told Of a vicar who only preached About hell fire and its recipe He expounded on lies Fornication, Adultery, Divorce, Lack of submission, Quarrelling, Lack of respect, Cheating, And many others His bulky wife had a mouth as sharp as a double edged sword She was a lioness who wore angelic clothes in […]
This leaf is raddled Saddled by the reigns of ageing Ageing which happily flaunts its job To the fascination of time And takes ridiculing as its compliment This leaf is raddled Raddled though it is It has seen all shades of the sun; Mild, seductive, angry, angered, and frightening But none blinded it […]
Let’s aid and abet the blowing wind To travel across the wretched sea To clear the dust and misty mind Of hate and killings they love to see I can see their thoughts like words on a board They make no attempts to conceal the lot If we stand to watch these in their […]
“Mother, did any one see God creating things? Mother, if child births are painful, Why didn’t God put the womb on males? Mother, Why don’t all living things work by day? Mother, is hell real or just a myth To scare people into submission? And mother, I want all explanations with scientific proofs” What do […]
We cannot be the sun and moon Whose shuttles orbit hundreds of miles To keep their distances and painfully swoon Light repels light no matter their differences But this light wants to merge in a cocoon With the light that is tearing its eyes For its weak rays need yours to happily swoon And sack […]
Hehehehe, one plus one is one But what is this I hear? That Paa Ekow wants a nice earthenware To be his one and only bowl. Not a bad idea, after all, a man must have a bowl But, what is this I’m hearing? That he wants a last-hand bowl? This bowl I know, is […]
Her hands are not for grabs She is the cook, the cook for all mouths Those hands cannot be broken like the legs of crabs They must be together for the sake of all mouths The cook cooks and the eater eats What is this about one wanting all her bowls? And what is […]
I remember,
I remember my love for darkness
For grandma sat on her story throne
With trickles of fire-lights showing her face
And deepening the darkness at her back,
Like a muse, she poured down all the secrets of Kwaku Ananse; the spider
Who like a chameleon, went from doing good to being bad
And from being wise to acting foolish
what gives passion thoughts? What gives passion feelings? What gives passion the gestures it upholds? Like a dead wood, I live,I eat, I drink, I sleep, I wake Only for a repeat The sages say listen to your heart, The adages echo, find you passion The society screams; “a bum you are” Parents hide their […]
Mum Cee