Poetry

By

Nene Tetteh Adusu

ONE MORE HYMN (for Kofi Awoonor)

The Earth’s Brother, mouthpiece of

tradition, a potent wayfarer, virgin’s envy

ferried across the river of tears, you are

away in the land across ours.

In the explosion and exhibition of

thunderous fireworks at the gate,

our world became dark

the explosion was colourful

full of absurdism and beingness-

butchered meat was sent splinters

down to the earth.

What is the beingness of a dead meat?

The sound of the flute is chaotic.

Ears seem not see

the flute’s dripping tears.

Eyes can see the tears as the sound

sits comfortable in the heart.

They killed you but never killed you,

for tomorrow, a decade and scores of years

to come, my children

and their children’s children will know

that huge senseless cathedral of doom,

Rediscovering their true selves

and communing with Sika

In the new found land.

In your words of mine-

it cannot be the explosion we heard

That night

That still lingers in the chambers of memory.

It is the new chorus of poetry

And the acts of our second selves.

The fallen tree carried off by the rain

dries in the sun,

wrapped in the earth, your brother.

I sit brooding over the scars left

by your exodus.

Nene Tetteh Adusu

Nene Tetteh Adusu, a Poet, Performer and Dramatist, hails from Ghana and lives in Accra where he writes poems and plays. He was honoured “the Order of the Village” at the Village Thinkers Honorary Awards, more words of whom can be read here.