IN SOLIDARITY

 a tear for brother Mahamed al-Ajami


the voice cannot be silent
the tongue cannot keep quiet
the song cannot cease to prick consciences
while citizens suffocate

but even if they castrate our voices
our anus will shout
even if they seal our anus
our hair-pores will trumpet
and even if they un-skin us
our blood veins shall be un-mute

i share a tear with you
but stand upon the thorns
so we could break the back of lions' rules!


 03/12/2012

A WORD, A STEP, A WAR, A PEACE

IN HONOUR OF A MAN-OF-PEACE



December
December
December
Your 7th day is a perfect day
Let peace reign.

a word can send a sword away
a naughty step can draw the sword

each step, each word
may birth a war or a piece
that can serve a piece of cake
at the jamboree of a common national dream
but
the rival of this
we must cast away.

"My brothers and my sisters
Ghana is the only country we have"

Peace is not a piece
of bodies pulled together
like harvested yam at Tamale central market,
covered with green leaves for eternal
burial into stomachs
It is burying the ugly tongue
that may draw a sword
                   or a song

AND when it is all over
we shall forge a greater family,
hold hands, share pito, drink sobolo
eat tuo zaafi, eat akple and fetri-detsi
sing patriotic songs and dance
to the eternal drumtunes
that
WE ALL HAVE WON TOGETHER AGAIN!
PEACE!
29/11/2012 Legon

CACTUS JOURNEY

through our cactus journeys

you kept the smile, the hope, the dream

and you grew, flamboyant

defying scorching suns and evil eyes

and  now  you   stand

against the venom

of accusing voices and curses

and now you cruise into green-fields

with the smile, the hope, the dream.

but oh

there is still the glory beyond these hopes

a joy condensed at our nearing destination

so

still hold the dream

look beyond the clouds

beyond the tears of today's soul.

14/11/2012 

OUR BLOOD COLOUR VICTORY FLAGS

The makeshift rockets and missiles
Shake the souls of our dreams
As children of the world
1000 bodies divided into salad
Served at dinning at Gaza

Give our eyes goose-pimples.


But what does the foetus 
Have to do with a war
It knows nothing about?
Why must the child be 
The victim of a reckless
brotherhood claiming lion-ness
over others' animal-ness?



and now our tears flood
the sea,
birthing hurricane Sandy 

then there will be hurricane Gaza

our heads
shall decorate the victory flag-posts
our blood shall colour the victory flags

our unborn future
shall ghost haunt the victory parties

and what a fractured world
shall remain
in memory of GAZA?

20/11/2012 Language Centre, Legon

WE ALL DIED

There is this silence
Heavier than the gunshot
A voice, keeping me away 
From telling you how much I...

This great unrealistic desire
Puts us all at a journey's end
At this primal days of our sojourn.
It is a thorn
Cutting deep, making us bleed
Yet protecting and decorating
Our dreams and TEARS and fears;
This razor
Bringing the true colour of our blood
But painfully, to the admiration of...
This porcupine skin
Taking or not taking:
each with its smile
each with its tears
each with its fears

There must be conversations
and the silence cripples us all

Then

The call came
the line died down
we all DIED, unconventionally!

20/11/2012, Language Centre, Legon.

OTABIL AND THE JESUS OF ICGC

The free education debate has become a theological debate. Many people who might not have heard of Pastor Otabil’s teachings on education are now aware of everything. The Pastor has come out to do the unusual: organizing a press conference apart from the press release by the church.

Does the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) have a different Jesus that they follow or not? This is a harmless question. I don’t want to be drafted into the debate too. However I know as a Christian that Jesus teaches that we shall be persecuted, insulted and even killed for his sake but our rewards are in heaven. What about this? Is Jesus not powerful enough to defend his own?

Then there is the issue of judgment. Pastor Otabil calls his accusers and what they say “evil”. The Bible says we should not judge so that we will also be judges. What about this? 

There was a story of a Jesus of Dzorwulu who came preaching that we should not bath. There was also a Pastor in the North of Ghana who predicted the end of the world, and the list continues. Who shall we believe now?

SILENT TEARS

Come Brother Come

Yesterday, our brother-leader was shot

in the pipe-hose at his birthplace;

and the sun set on our land at dawn

Come Brother Come

See the debris of our bulldozed dreams

Rotting in the oil fields and goldmines;

And watched. Our arms glued at our backs

The ancient whip modernised 

And flung at our silent souls

As Tripoli falls into alien hands 

It's waters flowing into stranger dams

Her insects screaming in foreign sounds

As we watched. Our arms TIED to our backs.

14/11/2012 Legon