BORN DIFFERENT

• 

Like an imperfect picture of the perfect on a perfect land,
I am a creation created by the creator of creativity,
I find wholeness in my incompleteness.
I live not in the shadows of others,
Life has given me no reason to regard myself with disregard.

Like an enigma in the mainland,
I am necessarily odd.
Unwanted by the unwritten rules,
The legitimate codes give me a nod,
I switch from secludedness to swimming in belongingness.

Like an insane genius in my motherland,
I turned my back to the normal world,
Where the only sage often looks like the only savage.
Embracing my weirdness,
I realise how marvelously normal I can be.

GREEN MEANS GO

• 

• 

A gist to generate a wake – up call
To go green in a grand beyond a duty call
A gossip to engendering the reproduction
Of a virgin vegetation
Starting from the traditional practice
Nursing and transplanting seedlings is the passport
Prolonging the species thereof
Propagating the herbaceous perennials
Replanting the hardy ornamentals
Planting plants from tall trees
To crawling creeping and carpet biennials
An automatic response to green means go.

AS SURE AS FATE

• 

My characters fade out
Respect getting timed-out
Day in and day out …
Not hanging
Noted dangling
Unlike a dangling modifier…

What would you do if you were me?
Would you loose your sense to disappoint your sensitivity?
Would you quit to avoid queries? Or
You would choose death over disgrace to disappoint other destinies ?
No need to hem and ham,
I do think of them too.

In the cold light of the day,
I realize there is still balance in my unsteadiness,
Just shaky, not down,
Still carry information.
Significantly insignificant
As the last s in ‘supositoires’.

One thing I need to do,
Hide under a shameless umbrella,
To exhibit an essence,
Not in a pretence.

Under the umbrella,
I continuously serve the very purpose
To the very people
Who continuously find me very purposeful,

Under the umbrella,
I still look
Looking forward
To welcoming my smiling future,

Under the umbrella,
I still wait
Waiting patiently
To celebrating my bright sunny days,

Under the umbrella,
I still dream
Dreaming of the reality
Of a glorious gigantic replacement,

A replacement that can
withstand the weather
through thick and thin

A replacement that can make
the people who look down on me
Look up to me

A replacement that can
delete sign and restore bill
to upgrade my Outlook.

THE 6TH MARCH FEVER

• 

• 

Celebration! Celebration! Celebration!
The celebration that makes citizens
Lay down their crowns
To salute the mother crown,

Celebration! Celebration! Celebration!
The celebration that makes the nation feel
The vibrating footstep sounds of contingents
Accompanied by the rhythmic music at every parade,

Celebration! Celebration! Celebration!
The celebration that makes the nation watch
From giant screens to pointed occiput screens
As they appreciate the bright national colours decorated on the rich cultural display.

Now the day is here
COVID 19 is also here
Eating into our patriotic fibre here,

Now the day is here
No rehearsals anywhere
Drums are white elephants everywhere,

Now the day is here
The zeal is not there
A lock – down here and there,

Now the day is here
Celebrations are held virtual
That is not supposed to be the actual,

Now the day is here
We look up to God
So help us God.

Farmiliarly Unfamiliar

You who do not look like who you are.
Like an ocean;
vigorous in the shallow,
Calm in the depth.

You who do not look like who you are.
Like a scare crow;
frightening from afar,
Friendly when near.

You who do not look like who you are.
Like an actor;
authoritarian at stage,
Democratic behind scenes.

You who do not look like who you are.
Like Santa Claus;
your kind gestures rated just a display,
Is a clear demonstration that you have the welfare of your subordinates at heart.

You who do not look like who you are.
Like a tragicomedy,
in your anger,
Exist a great sense of humour.

You who do not look like who you are.
Your pattern propels a paradigm shift.
Your versatility extends even to your private life,
Proudly promising in your pedigree.

We who know you,
Know you,
The real you,
And we salute you!

Inspired by Lt. Col. Livingstone Yao Penti, the Education Officer of the 2Garrison Education Unit, Takoradi, Ghana.

THE INDIVISIBLE 111

You are the anthem.
The anthem decoded
only by nations you communicate with.
Your lyrics make every member state patriotic,
Revisiting the chronicles of the Good Fights,
From generation to generation,
To honour the honoured,
Igniting Africanism and nationalism within.

You are the visionary;
Believing your members are a reflection of you,
you make sure each is a reflection of one another.
The Agenda 2063 testifies
your aspirations and goals are at heart.
You are the legendary;
The legendary second to the world’s.
The celebration of your birth
Is second to none in the continent,
and among those in the diaspora.
A whistle from you,
Gathers heads of states at your feet.

Your hope has always being for the best,
Your zeal is to run over barriers
to zero in belated age- lined fulfilments
Better late than never,
A strong record of doing away with racism,
Still striving to decrease the distance from finance,
security and other solutions of your challenges,
For fortune favors the fearless.
But a watched pot never boils,
For a drop of honey attracts more flies
than a dam of vinegar,
All will happen in a good time.

THE INDIVISIBLE 11

You are the skeleton;
The backbone of African Unity.
The skeleton unto which
Individual members attach their flesh.
The skeleton by which
the continent stands.
Without you, the continent is shapeless,
a people without beauty.

The fountain
The African fountain
That spread peace
As you water the land.
Your flamboyant nature
in the mainland,
projects the multi – rich culture,
Embellishing the people with harmonious lifestyle.

You are the river.
The great river
that forget not its source.
Unlike river Limpopo,
that runs through a few
in the southern countries,
you run through all African countries.
From you, do we drink
the knowledge of the ‘we feeling’.
Your surface ripples with words of wisdom.
Your persistency softens hardened rocks,
Making them ready to comply.

THE INDIVISIBLE

The account of your creation still echoes
in the essence of your existence,
Your achievements speak well of you.
This is a simple reminder
to those yet to remember,
A holistic hint to new arrivals.

Conceived by the spirit of Pan- Africanism,
Your predecessor was born,
with 32 beads tied around the waist,
on Tuesday, 25th May, 1963,
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
not the never- existed Ababoa in the ‘Aladdin’ movie.

On the ninth day of the ninth month,
In the year nineteen ninety-nine,
You took over the mantle,
Without stealing her thunder,
Safeguarding the solidarity, sovereignty
and territorial integrity of
all the African countries on board,
Including Madagascar, isolated by the original geographer.

Like a black alpinist rope,
with fifty-five strings;
Your strength ties your members
in line with your norms and values,
You stretch from the North to the South;
From the Republic of Algeria to Angola.
From the East to the West;
From the Republic of Burundi to Burkina Faso.