The Obama Serenades X

“[In Africa] the chief doesn't rush….
He meets, consults and then decides”
- Olara A. Otunnu (New York Times 7/12/09)

We ate
the bananas,
waited
for water,
ate the bananas,
waited for water,
ate the bananas,
waited for water,
ate the bananas
and waited
for water
and made
a mad
dash
for
the
waste-
land…

we ate
the bananas
and relished
its honey taste,
and then
we ate as
blindly and
madly as a
warrior amidst
a feast
of blood…

they say
what you
love best,
invariably,
is what will
kill you…

and so
we ate
the rareripe
bananas
and left
the peels
out to dry
in the midday
sun;
soon,
they shall
be made
into soap…

memory
is cud
for both
thinkers
and
villains;
memory
is what keeps
our clan
and
nation
alive;
memory
is also key
to the grove
of those
gone ahead;
memory
is all
that remains
beyond skulls
and bones
uncovered
from the killing
fields –
there were no
killing fields
at all,
save
the killing fields
of the poetic mind;
there were no
killing fields
at all,
just the mass
suicide of a
rudderless
race…

and
in all this,
our chiefs
sat silent
minding
their wretched
lot,
mulling
and
choosing
that sort
of foolery
which breeds
longevity
shorn of
dignity…

“The chief
doesn't rush,”
he has all
at his beck
and call;
“The chief
doesn't rush,”
he owns
his post
by dint of
blood
and
clan;
“The chief
doesn't rush,”
it is only
a neighbor
whose house
was set
alight…

7/12/09

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

   Comments0