Grandfather's Old Law Book
The ancient, no, Jurassic, Jurisprudence
book that belonged to my grandfather. He’d wanted to a lawyer. He abandoned
school with eyesight problems and a thirst to enter politics against an
evolving dictator at the time. He became a magistrate, but never a lawyer. When
I pick that book, he speaks to me. He starts, “Panyin Senior Brother.” That’s
what he called me. He's smiling down at me right now.
Varicoloured, Old Bed Sheet
The many-motif strip of cloth my mother
gave to me in ’98, when I was going to the university. It saw tears and wet dreams
for coquettish college girls and served me well in my law-limited sleep. I keep
it as a cover cloth now, and it will never retire from my bed.
Bold, Blue Bath Bucket
Ten-litre pail with a lovely black handle. Faithful
companion when the showers turned traitor. Now benched as a laundry boy, it’s
still not too little to give me a quick body dousing.
Blue, Plastic-Strap Swatch from Primary School
My first Swatch, and mother of many more. I
can’t say it rendered me precise, but it was a long-lasting friendship.
Black, Sleek, Scientific Calculator
Daddy bought this gizmo months after we “broke
the neck of this Apartheid” in South Africa. He bought it in Johannesburg. It was
seventy-something Rands. A long-distance cousin I only saw once visited for three
hours. He must have arrived back in Koforidua with a new toy.
