Requiem For A Mother-In-Law Gone Too Soon – Part 11

Eno,
as had been expected,
the vultures came
circling around
the freshly killed game;
the fleas
would not
be left out
of the loop –
such, of course,
is the way
of the world,
such is the way
with the world:
folks would rather
I kept the peace
by muffing up
the truth,
by pretending
that which was
never existed
while that which existed
was more perfect
than the messenger
claims to have heard
seen and
witnessed…
but, of course,
you know darn as well
as I do that
I am no passive
spectator
nor unscrupulous keeper
of an uneasy peace
and truce –
I simply
let the chips fall
where they may,
simply let others
deal with their own
mess and muck,
like man
and his shadow;
I curry no favors,
demand neither respect
nor praise
from any critter
composed of flesh
and blood;
truth,
pent up
and despised
for decades
must be exposed,
must explode
in the face
of doers and
facilitators;
like the force
of gravity,
we are prime
reapers
of our own
seeds –
the messenger
who muffs up
the truth
is thrice
as guilty
as the maker
of misery
and mischief;
besides,
as Grandpa Sintim
used to say
time without cease,
“Plain-talk
Purges
The soul” –
the prophetic tongue
does not rot,
though the entire
universe
may burn up
in flames
of deceit
and parochial
self-interest;
alas,
I have pitched
my tent
with the enemies
of truth
and must be
prepared
for treachery
that transcends
the righteously
examined life;
a toddler,
our elders have said,
may break
snail shells,
not the carapace
of a turtle –
Maafio,
that valedictory glint
in your eyes
which I solemnly
locked onto,
in retrospect,
was the unstoppable
beckoning of fate.
We are
authors of our
own fates,
doers of our
own undoing,
oftentimes –
such is the way
of the world,
such is the wayward
descent of man
and the woman
of the Forbidden
Fruit…
12/5/18

Author: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

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