No New Name

Do not yet name me among the vulture clan

I still breathe the aroma of home

I am the tiger skin’s proverbial spots

Journeying into tomorrow

Holding yesterday in the right palm

Staying unwashed by the blazing rains of alien climes

Whenever Dzatugbui calls

Her miracle voice licks my tongue

Refreshing my voice

My voice that is haunted each day by foreign saliva

Whenever Wosekpo calls

The truth in her smile waters the planted cord

That links me to my earth,

Mending the fragmentation in the present snow-burns

Whenever Abena calls

The melodies in her eyes

Light the candle in my loins

Massaging every framework

To the point of a final libation to the god of innocence

Pleading to break the vow

Whenever Kafui, Dzigbordi and Selorm call

I go into memory-bank

Of childhood and the dreams of the present

Of our naivety about false ritualistic ecstasies

I must be home soon

But now, my land,

Do not name me among the vulture clan

17.3.14 

Coffin at State House

There is a riddle in our soul

A proverbial totem of survival

Crocodile children went to the play-field

And fire maimed their homes

So they returned

To meet headless walls

Our cedi kneels

Before the shrine of global gods

Her value dashed to garbage can

Her flesh, de-fattened

Her destiny dangling

Like locomotive squirrel’s testicles

Our economic witches

Lost their eyes

And now

A new coffin lies at state house

We have known survival

But these headless walls

Threaten us into ghost-hood

A Dearth

Now I stand

Looking through the glass window

Muttering

Holding a cup of cold water

Wanting to pour bits on the floor

Then the voice came:

You are on a foreign land.

What is in a self-exile

That maims the deeper self?

There is something in this journey

That takes the spirit from us,

Then the cup dropped

Splitting ALL its contents and ITSELF

Clan-root’s Demise

Komla Afeke Dumor

truthSpeaker

who sealed the mouth of  crocodile’s children,

Whatever prompted Kutsiami to boat you mid-duty

Blurred the diviners’ visions

And tamed the leopard-clan

Afeke

Root of the clan,

They say

Crocodile children clamped you

On a gun’s noose

Watching watching

If you will shiver

But

As a Tuesday man of the leopard family

Your smile set fire to their dreams

So they pulled the trigger

Placed you on the dining table

For Salagatsi to feast upon

Death eats juicy hearts from our clan-house

But yours

Must appease Salagatsi’s eternal hunger

He has gone too far

Death swept too fast

Even seers were deaf to his lingo

Let death know that

It just touched a bee-gourd

With a left finger

The fire still burns

Komla

Your fire still burns

If You Are Priscilla I Will Be Gabriella

Come, oh, celestial queen

Let me carry you in my palanquin

You are not a chloroquine

To be washed away with so-kiln

It is an abomination

Not to harvest determination

To make you my possession

Though in economic deprivation

You said your name is Priscilla,

Oh I will give you a crystal clear Chrysler.

I will change my name to Gabriella

To rhyme with yours at Shangri-la

Did you say you work at Metropolitan

Or you said Cosmopolitan?

Whichever it is, sine or tan

Any theta shall make a perfect pun

Sorry I let my heart out

In this market with a shout

With no dream streams of doubt

I know these hidden seeds will surely sprout!

30/06/2011 Adabraka

Wishing

.......

that

your rib gate

goes insane

hands over the keys

to that

soft soft

garden

nurtured behind the ribs

.......

that

our souls melt

into

one

flowing stream of

flowers

and

screams

and

smiles

.......

that

soon

We’ll lead ourselves

to some altar

where our innocence

will be sacrificed

to a god

sitting somewhere

deep in us

downwards

Naked

At dawn

It was all smiles

and kisses

and touches

Then

It was all moans

and moans

and moans

But

Now,

the dagger in the smiles

the fireTongues in the moans

birthed a river

of blood

of tears

of screams

My heart lies

NAKED

waiting and waiting

for stiches…