The Obama Serenades III

Kotoka International Airport

It is not that
Ghana has always had
the best and brightest
of the proverbial
cream of the leadership
crop;
not even that our leadership
has largely
or even mostly been
of the democratic stock;
just that some of us
have been brave
and courageous
enough
to be willing
to spill
our own blood
to ensure
the rest of our
kin and kith
live in peace
and freedom
with justice…

and so tonight
America's first
African son
shall touch down
on Ghana's earth,
the very sacred earth
selflessly soaked
with General Kotoka's blood
callously spilled
as this patriotic giant
was felled
by minions
of a tyrant
who would only have
Ghanaians and our
land in perpetual thrall,
at his beck,
whim and
lunacy…

ours is
indeed
a land
and people
in peace and
at peace with
themselves,
a people
in whose culture
are embodied
the noble tenets
of love
friendship
and
hospitality;
a land in which
the commonality
of human
destiny and
fate are embraced
with fellow-feeling
and liberal sharing
of whatever our
commonwealth entails…

Ghana,
a veritable
motherland,
as only
a mother
knows best
the primal needs
and desires
of her child,
a motherland
as only
a mother
knows best
what mode
of guidance
and protection
to afford
her son…

Ghana is
a motherland,
which means
like a torch
or beacon
of Liberty,
she welcomes
and accepts all
who make the trip
into her home,
providing warmth
and provender
for the haggard hobo
and unreserved comfort
for the penitent wayward…

Land of
generous mosquito bites,
Ghana,
fabled Kingdom of Gold,
bejeweled maidens,
diamond tiaras
and silver stools…

Gateway to
big-hearted Africa,
welcome,
Sonny Obama,
whatever I own
is also yours!

7/10/09

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

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