Poetry - Between Love and Friendship

This morning, I felt an old hunger - poetry! I wrote the poem "Between Love and Friendship. I hope you like it.

Sweet Rainy Morning

In the showery, half-light morning, on the glistening arch arteries of asphyxiated Accra, the downtown drive is slippery, but smooth and swift. The breeze is brisk: barely beginning to bite. I would do anything for this dream downpour drive every morning.

Salt, Soap and Coca Cola

An unfinished domestic in a friend’s house cannot spout a word of everyday English, they say. She does not admit “salt” or “soap” or “television”. But she utters “TV”, “MTN”, “switched off” and “Coca Cola” on autopilot.

Captain Hook’s Spell

An urbane, cosy restaurant in the Labone/Cantoments neighbourhood in the City of Accra. Its specialty is sea food, and its menu shows both a wide-range fare and healthy high, advance-knowledge prices. It has, how shall we say, maritime decor with mammoth turtle shells, and ‘ship timber’ and ... is that whale bone I saw on the walls? But the one thing that does marvels for my hunger is the sexily short skirts the waitresses wear; and we know the ancient spell that the waitress casts.

Accra Crime Alert – The Case for DIY?

When a domestic doodad breaks down, and you allow in wandering workmen to repair, they may not only come calling; they may also come casing! The Police says the risk runs even with imposters invested in utility company coveralls. Since security-check results are a Haley’s Comet, maybe this is a case for DIY, in the City of Accra, no?

What if your Partner...

If you discovered that your devoted “Darby” or “Joan” of three years had been dribbling deliberately into your dinner or drink every time they were disconcerted by you, what would you do?

The Four-Wheel-Drive Complex

A Jurassic Jeep driver flies past me on the dirt-rocky Spintex Road at 6 a.m., at full, bitumen-surface speed, and cuts into my lane. A sand truck rockets a little rock which cracks the jinxed Jeep’s windscreen. The junk Jeep driver chases the truck...for what?

2 Things You do that I Hate

Red-lighted at the National Theatre, I was wondering why some Accraians keep the protective plastic sheets on the seats to flaunt their shiny, new cars. Just then, I swept over a tall, young woman stand-squatting with legs spread poles apart, lifted skirt, bag armpit-bound, tight-toned thighs, nice...but she was jetting piss in the perpendicular of her triangular legs. I looked hard to catch her face...and the lips she was flashing, but it was dragging dark, and the green lights galled me to go.

Hating and Spiting

When haters pull up in traffic
And put their noses into your car
You can feel how evil and tragic
Their spiting and loathing are

Everyone’s Saving Grace

Nobody’s utterly useless. We all possess at least one saving grace – one tall talent – that makes the whole world stop, and take nonplussed notice. And we all have the urgent urge to flaunt it foolishly. So, what’s yours?

Crazy Concert Costs

You would be cast crudely from the queue to a live entertainment event if you offered only GH¢10 ($7.15). You would need to bleed at least GH¢40 ($29) for local/African artistes, and GH¢100 ($72) for American artistes.

Lemonade & Lunch

Thankfully, GHc10 ($7.15) will lavish you a flagon of lemonade and lunch on a laze-about week day - a healthy hoarding of fine-grain gari foto and pan-fried chevon, or frugal fufu with gleeful goat-light, or yummy yam and garden-egg stew (kobi and all) or jolly jollof rice and chicken. OH, STOP IT! ....... How many earn GHc10 a day? ... and legitimately?

9 Litres of Petrol

GHC10 ($7.15) won’t get you 2 gallons of gasoline, goddammit! And still, Accra navigates a sea full of SUVs. Plus this equatorial fireplace demands the full nyanya.

*Nyanya = air conditioning.

No Cheap Movie Ticket

GH¢10 ($7.14) won’t admit you to Ghana’s only real cinema. It will take one-and-a-half times that. I’ve heard it said that most families, here, must live on less than $1 daily, judging from the wages.

10 Ghana Cedis

Dear Reader, this week, I will explore the theme posts again. I’m going to discover what GHC10 can do for a person. That’s about US$7.15. Maybe, I will rather discover what it cannot do. Maybe you want to share what you can(not) do with US$7.15, or its equivalent, wherever you are. First post coming up later today. Thank you.

I Wish I'd Learned That Sooner

I wish I had learned sooner the power of attention to detail.

I wish I had learned sooner the futility of getting a woman to like you simply by being nice to her.

I wish I had learned sooner the power of self-love.

I wish I had learned sooner who my real friends were.

I wish I had learned sooner the importance of food and sleep.

I wish I had learned sooner to do legal research well.

I wish I had learned sooner the perils of emotional dependence.

I wish I had learned sooner to speak my true mind always.

I wish I had learned sooner that ism would always be a part of life.

I wish I had learned sooner to live life less intensely.

What do you wish you had learned sooner?

The Merchant and the Leper 5

Part 5: The Liver of a Leper

The King’s beloved daughter fell ill
Could not be healed by prayer or pill
The Leper whispered in the King’s ear
Let the Merchant heal her or die here

He travelled to distant lands and ‘hoods
Until he met the Spirit of the Woods
Who knew an ancient healing plan –
The liver of a freshly killed man

The Merchant returned to the King’s palace
“I have the cure”, he said with a hiss
“Kipper, pepper, liver of a leper!
"I'm pretty sure that will help her"

Before the western sun went down
The Princess walked through the town
But the Leper was seen no more
It’s said his death was all agony and gore!

The End

The Merchant and the Leper 4

Part 4: The Bull and the Snake

A stranger plot is then hatched
Its evil intent most unmatched
“See the fiery bull in the fields
“Go yell till its life it yields”

Sitting on the wooden fence
The Merchant has lost hope and sense
His friend, the serpent, crawls to him
And offers to save his wealth and limb

“I will sneak upon the bull
“When you’re screaming loud and full
“Unseen by your foes and their gangs
“I will kill it with a stab of my fangs”

So, the bull was “screamed” to death
Seemed just give up on breath
(There were more tasks planned from hell
Until calamity befell)

The Merchant and the Leper 3

Part 3: Millions of Grain

The Leper goes to see the King
More intrigue does he bring:
“You made it easy, and he won
“Set him a more difficult one.”

“Take him to your Great Granary
(’Bout which you sing like a canary)
“Mix up all the grain of the land
“Let him separate each kind by hand”

The kind Merchant is sad again
As he walks, all can see his pain
He meets the Ant who he’s helped before
The Ant brings his colony to the grain store

Rice and Barley, Oats and Wheat
All are sorted nice and neat
When King and Leper come to check
They both go like “What the heck!”

The Merchant and the Leper 2

Part 2: The Baobab Tree

“Pick all the fruit off the Baobab Tree”
Was the King’s insane decree
“But drop not a leaf to ground
“Or I’ll take your dollar and pound”

The merchant went weeping on his way
His future looked bleak and grey
How could he this task execute?
No one could pick just the fruit!

He met the playful monkey
Who he’d helped a time or three
“Today your kindness will save you,
“Of trees, I know a thing or two.”

Swinging here and there
Was not done with lesser care
Down in no time are the pods
But not a single leaf plods.