Musical Chairs

In no telegraph time, I come to link my cell phone ring tone with the ten or so Undesirables that I would rather not hear from. Every one of those cringe-calls really rattles me. So, I shuffle my ring tone every month or two or three, according to when my Don’t-Pick list touches ten.

Predator and Prey

What did you permit
To bother you today?
Would you also admit
Being both Predator and Prey?

‘Exotic’ Videos in the City of Accra

Ghanaian artistes cut their music videos with animated windmills, the Alps, Manhattan or flying Arabian carpets in the busy background. They’re casually crooning about common affection or double-entendre coupling. So, the welkin wonder is the ’rhymeless’ spectacle.

A Time to Heal

Tell me, should a battered, broken heart
Not hide away till time heals the pain?
Or should it stay wide open and apart
And try to trust and love again?

Free-Riding in the City of Accra

In the creeping cord of traffic on the gritty main artery of Adenta Quarter, two draggled, frowzy men hopped off the rear bumper of the trotro (mini bus) in front of me. They’d been freeloading from Madina Town for about three turbulent kilometres. The driver didn’t seem to mind – I wonder why I did.

Coin-Counting Carousal in the City of Accra

Equator Bar, Accra, 9p.m.

He let slip to case a new place to hang out with an advance party of his mates before whisking a woman there. Now, he and three of his mates are having happy drinks with a woman – a tall, dark, leggy vixen in a short, small, black dress. She’s full of electro-magnetic elegance. They put on a cheesecake aided by the combo band. Then, it’s time to go. It’s time to pay.

The waiter drops the bill. The men shoot back in shock. They debate in decibels above the music exactly how many of what they have had. One appeals to see the drink menu – Jackass, isn’t this two hours too late?

Thirty minutes later, when it’s time for my group to hit the door, Miss Legs and her guy are still stuck in their booth. Their mates have long left them. My guess is they are going to bring some money to pay. Miserable toads!

Letting Go

Why should you let them go
When it's true, and you know
Their chance of a happy life
Is all in being your wife?