Sun, 12 Jul 2009 Feature Article

The Obama Serenades IX

Noah and Sodom Reprised
What happened
to Sodom
and Gomorrah
is here
with us
once more…
thirty centuries
of temporal
stasis…
which is why
it was hardly
any surprise
it happened
again
today…
it happened
as we awaited
the second-coming
of Africa's
American
first born…
it began
in Noah's time,
this chronic
disease;
it existed
in Lott's age,
this wayward
blight;
it was born
with Adam
and Eve,
this illness
of disobeying
that which
was foretold…
there will always
be those fated
to get
their fingers
caught
in subway
doors,
there will always
be those with
a pretender's
pair of
ears,
those with
false
oversized
ears…
there will always,
likewise,
be enough blame
to go around
and come
right back again
to strangle those
who insist
it isn't
their fault
to be caught
outside
the loop…
still,
none
can gainsay
this minimum
much:
the message came
at midday
with the sun's
full-blast,
a herald
with gold-plated
staff,
an escutcheon,
scroll and
jackboots
to match…
still,
legions with
floppy ears
and stunted legs
of beagles
swear not
to have
heard
the same…
and which
kinsman
or woman
could blame
these hapless
folk
who obviously
did not
belong…
or perhaps
the blame
squarely,
sweetly
and
soundly
reposed
in their
avian heads,
these creatures
of a stingy
god…
and so
just as
it came
to pass
with Noah's
flood,
these wayward
ones got
thoroughly
drenched,
completely
drowned
by their own
wayward
ways,
even as
Sodom
and
Gomorrah
went up
in flames,
and Lott's
wayward
wife froze
into
a giant
pillar
of
salt…
a laboring
maid
caught
in birth pangs
at a barrier post
on the road
to La;
a churlish
clan
with their dead
stuck on
balding
pates
on the road
to Nu…
7/11/09
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD, taught Print Journalism at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City, for more than 20 years. He is also a former Book Review Editor of The New York Amsterdam News.. More He holds Bachelor of Arts (Summa Cum Laude) in English, Communications and Africana Studies from The City College of New York of The City University of New York, where he was named a Ford Foundation Undergraduate Fellow and the first recipient of the John J. Reyne Artistic Achievement Award in English Poetry (Creative Writing) in 1988.

The author was part of the "socially revolutionary" team of undergraduate journalists at City College of New York (CCNY) of the City University of New York (CUNY), who won First-Prize certificates for Best Community Reporting from the Columbia University School of Journalism, for three consecutive years, from 1988 to 1990.

Born April 8, 1963, in Ghana; naturalized U.S. citizen; son of Kwame (an educator) and Dorothy (maiden name, Sintim) Okoampa-Ahoofe; children: Abena Aninwaa, Kwame III. Ethnicity: "African." Education: City College of the City University of New York, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1990; Temple University, M.A., 1993, Ph.D., 1998. Politics: Independent. Religion: "Christian—Ecumenist." Hobbies and other interests: Political philosophy.

CAREER: Ghana National Cultural Center, Kumasi, poet, 1979–84; Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, worked as instructor in English; Technical Career Institutes, New York, NY, instructor in English, 1991–94; Indiana State University, Terre Haute, instructor in history, 1994–95; Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY, member of English faculty. Participant in World Bank African "Brain-Gain" pilot project.

MEMBER: Modern Language Association of America, National Council of Teachers of English, African Studies Association, Community College Humanities Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Essay award, Nassau Review, 1999.Column: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

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The Obama Serenades IX

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