REGARDLESS

Winds whistled through dark strands,

Long blades of untouched savanna.

Sub divine visions burst on my eyes

Vocal chords by which Apollo tuned his harp

I could have sworn then that you were a Goddess

Descended from the heavens

The way you affected everything around you

It was as though your body mirrored your soul

And if I had a choice to love you not

I knew it not

But tides came and went

Dark strands turned grey

Shadows crept in on the light that shined within

And joints once well oiled

Have turned to creaky rust

But I love you

Beyond your body

Beyond your soul

Beyond your mind

I love you in me

And though I don’t always show the phenotype

Be assured that loving you exceeds my control

It is my genotype

I love you regardless

Muscles wrought in steel

Chiseled and carved as if by the hands of Vulcan himself

Sublime in style, Herculean in power

With one I’d carry you

With the other ward off all assailants

Problem solver

Never a step out of place

Wisdom beyond my years

Unfailing knowledge

Alpha male

Head of the pack

You were Asaase Afia, My Hera

My Cleopatra

My Amina

My Fathia

But rains came and went

Flesh once firm sagged

Memory needle sharp now fails

Hearts once passionate now livid

But I still love you

Beyond my weakness

Beyond my failing body

Beyond my minds inability to know anything and everything

I love you in you

Where I’m perfect and have no faults

Where my little efforts are hyperbolized a hundredfold over

I love you regardless

The clouds formed differently

The winds were a little cooler and a little warmer

A concerto of birds

Backed by stomping horses and trumpeting elephants

Heralded our mornings

The sun caressed our cheeks with gentle fingers

The winds kissed us ever so softly

The grass received us better than latex

The rivers tasted better

The springs and pool were more refreshing

But suns set and rose

Crowing crows caused chaotic chasms be created concurrently within cocoons once safe

Flames of turbulent volcanoes say in our ears the inevitability of an end

Erupting geysers will sing our eminent doom

Incoherent quakes will roots threaten

Ripping away at buttress and tap

Hoping to create a gap

But I love you

Beyond their hushed screams

Beyond their hooded smiles

Beyond their uncanny dances

I love you in God

Timelessly transcending star, galaxy and universe

Eternally unchanging

Cosmically unlimited

I love you regardless.

IN SILENCE SAID

I know I promised that we’ll talk about everything and nothing

No barriers, no walls

Nothing was outta bounds for us

I swore to keep no secrets

And that “no holding anything back” clause in our contract was meant to be upheld

So tell me

Why am I up talking to Journal through Steadler

Explain to me why I couldn’t tell you in worded communication

How I detested the interruption of our silent conversation

How when you got up and left for those few minutes

It felt like a thousand years

How when you returned with your back turned told tales

How omitting to tell of the interrupter

Gave to my mind the chance to be an insurrector

Conspiring theories

Of  who did what and what did who and what not

Questions of why a back turned

Why a voice heard

Or unheard

Why! why!! why!!!

My heart beat

And between

Diastole and systole a myriad of words unsaid

But the channel was broken

Whoever ran the interference succeeded

A ping

Then another…..

Then another………

Silence!!

Hurried goodbyes

Unsaid hurts, heavy sighs

And hearts still beating..

Pum pum…pum pum… pum pum

NORVI DEKPE

Norvi Dekpe!!

You should have seen her

 In those glorious days.

 When sun wasn’t half as hot as it is now.

 When you could swear by the coming of the rains.

When mobile phones were a fairytale to the poor and preserve of the very rich.

 In those days you should have  known Norvi Dekpe.

Her petite body looking so fragile,

the perfect Italian marble sculpting of her features almost ethereal.

You should have seen her I tell you,

 in those days when the gait in her feet were that of one who walks on water,

 those butterflies wing that covered her eyes batted constantly,

as  if to prevent over exposure of the bright stars behind them.

You should have seen her,

so you can tell me if there ever was a smile wider, brighter or more life filled.

Oh Norvi,

Though lowly born was highly made

A beauty that lay in every eye the beheld it

And many were those that sought to behold it

Her long slender neck could have snap with the least force

Yet it carried on it a head that was twice as beautiful 

As the body it stood on

Village born, Village raised

City wise, City made

You should have known Norvi then

You should have known Norvi

When she became a widowed mother

And though her love had passed on she would have none other

Neither would you have found a better mother

When mother and daughter would were same cloth

Talk as though best friends

More sisters than Dam and damsel

You should have known Norvi Dekpe

Before her story begun to draw my tears

Before news of her became sad news

Before the marble sculpture was weathered

By the acid rain that is life

Before copper turned green

You should have known Norvi then

So you’d lament with me

So you’d shed a tear for my sense of loss.

You should have known Norvi Dekpe

THERE IS APONKYE BINI

Hark! Hark!! Hark!!!

There is apokye bini

If I had a cedi for every time I sung those lines as a child I’d be a millionaire. This morning as I watched the kids in the children service of my church march off with their brightly decorated, flower filled and well woven palm fronds, singing

Hosiana

Ajor Ajor morni baa

Y3 Yehowa gb3i mli

Hosiana y3 nw3i shoorr

I was filled with nostalgia. Feelings of loss and gain filled me instantly, a sense of having lost that childhood innocence and ability to enjoy such seemingly insignificant moments, and gain at having gone through that stage of my life and having so many good memories from then. As I took the pictures of their lit up faces, I found my heart being lifted.

In the midst of all this a daunting thought came to mind, I asked myself if these children really understood the importance and reasons behind what they were doing. In their faces reflected a fear I have had for the longest time. A fear of how the vicious cycle of ignorance continues. I spent most part of that morning replaying and contemplating a conversation I had with Tosin years ago in University about how most of us Christians had rough adulthoods because in Sunday school we were taught what now shallow truths seem without trying to get us to get or at least desire the deeper truths.

I wondered whether these children really knew the meanings and significance of Palm Sunday, Easter, Christmas.

Did they know why on those occasions Sunday school was different?

Did they know the true value of the celebration?

Did they know the significance of those celebrations to the faith they are in?

Or are they all just a bunch of fairy tales to them??

A visit to most Sunday schools today will reveal the children being taught the same things in the same manner we were taught. No modification and adjustment to suit the times. In some cases you find that the message has been watered down further in the name of it being too complex for the kids. This for me is scary.

The way I see because we get such weak foundations as Christian children we grow up not really understanding the faith, and makes it easy for us to wrongly practice the religion.

Further from Christianity is the general socialization of children, I believe our educational system both formal and informal is failing miserably. 

In the poem ‘Rewrite’ Kwame says “our children are fast cooked like indolmie” and I couldn’t agree with him more. Children are bombarded with so much information yet little or no explanation is offered. What that creates is a generation that is knowledgeable but not wise.

It is imperative that we as a people, whether it is in religion, politics or just life in general provide for our young ones a foundation based on understanding what is around them.

Imagine how much different your life would be if someone had taken time to explain some basic things to you. 

Let not happen our children what happened to us.

A'ra Dee

It was about 5:30 am, just another morning, just another day. I was in the bathroom, annoyed that my sleep had been cut short, annoyed that I had to have a cold bath, annoyed that I had to go to school. In the kitchen Dede, my sister, who had had her bath already was preparing breakfast and the lunch we were supposed to take to school. Wisdom was outside sweeping the compound, Daavi my granny was in bed as were my parents. It was just another morning, just another day.

Suddenly a scream cut through the eerie silence. It startled me, bolted me out of my half sleep mode, immediately I knew who had screamed and where it had come from. still wet and stark naked I run out of the bathroom straight to the kitchen. It was like something from a badly written movie script, there holding the handle of the door of our old was Dede, stiff as an over starched cloth on a harmattan afternoon and screaming like a banshee. I was first to arrive on the seen confused and lost as to what to do. Daavi pushed pass and went to her aid. In a bid to pull her off she too was was thrown  to the ground by the voltage that was passing through Dede.

Kofikorshi, my dad, got there on all fours, having tripped  while rushing in, my mum closely following. Just then I was kicked into action, by what, I don't know. I run straight to the switch and put it off, but not before I got my fair share of the electricity passing through. Dede fell  and for what seemed like forever she just lay there, leaving us all to fear the worse. When she did move it was so frail you'd think she was boneless.

She overcame that trauma, and the one that happened later when in a similar situation, while making breakfast on a morning, when ECG had decided not to supply us power, spilled boiling water all over herself, scalding herself extensively. She was out of school for close to a month, came back and still managed to pass all her exams.

You she has always been the surrogate mother, being the only girl among three boys. she cared for us, cooked and cleaned for us. She was our voice of reason. Of all my siblings she,s the one I closest to, she was the one with whom I shared carrying our asthmatic older brother home from school when he had his attacks. The one who calmed me down, took me home and held my hand through the stitches when I cut my ear playing with Fareeda Ahmed at El-wak stadium. She was the one who wiped my tears after the flogging I got when I was caught playing 'mummy and daddy' with Olivia Adomaa, and yes she was the first to catch me watching porn. She was the one who walked with me to church and school, helped me with my homework and taught me how to wash my clothes.

In University, she was the one I chilled with, the one who cooked for me to eat. Whenever I squandered all my allowance, guess who was there to give me money, and  when I went on a date with Esi Akyere and run out of cash guess who was standing at her hostel gate with the cab fare to prevent my disgrace. She taught me how to dance, and encouraged my writing, she took me for all those rehearsals as a kid and came and saw all the drama's I was in if she could.

My sister Ethel Dede-Terko Tettey, Ar'a Dee has always got my back. In many ways she has helped mold me into the man I'm becoming, she's my best friend and adviser, and maybe even the reason why most girls seem substandard to me. Yet somehow I don't think I appreciate her enough. The day she she gets married I'm sure will be the day I cry over another person, for now she's still my Ar'a Dee.