INCANTATIONS OF THE HEART

INCANTATIONS OF THE HEART
Goddess  of the eastern lagoon
The moon has flooded
Huts with glowing tears
Fishermen tell tales of you
To their sons

They say you are the
Fish with scales of gold
And eyes of pearls
The morning omen—
Bearer of the cornucopia

You are  the noon rainbow
That sews the lips of thunder
And kills the embers of lightning
—You deprive storms of lungs

And when shadows
Of the night fall on their eyes
You are the lone star
Whose light lead them home

©Sarpong Kumankuma
15-10-15,2000hrs

FINAL CONFESSION

FINAL CONFESSION
I inscribed her name with excreta
And dug canals on her face

I chained her to
A stake of mockery for
Outsiders to stone her with
Truth-like lies

To console her
I fed  her heart on pins
And treated the wounds with poison

My lips wove for her
A glowing future
Whiles my hands pushed her
Into dark days

I juggled
The hat of blame
Onto the heads of accomplices
Who tossed it back to me

Her golden breasts
I selfishly  sucked to waste
And ended up crying hunger...

My faith was bigger than
Mountain Kilimanjaro but could not
Lift a mustard seed
As I sat with hopeful hands stuck between
My statued thighs staring at her shrinking womb
To bring forth the reincarnation of Kwame Nkrumah

My siblings
Mama is still in pains and chains
I have known there is no future but now
What we call future
Is the reflection of the present
In the mirror of time

Taste my tears
There's no more a trace of hypocrisy
Tell Mama to forgive me....

Unite to restore smiles
To her face and stitch the lips of her mockers
Before this dark cave approaching my sickbed
Gets to swallow you

©Sarpong Kumankoma
January-2015

KITWE FLOWER

Kitwe Flower
Iyee! Ilube lisuma sana!

The air is filled
With her fragrance
The sky  dazzles
With the colour of her blossoms

Kitwe woke up to the
Song of tender bones
Climbing the ladder of age

Seventeen steps
She has travelled
Eternity ahead of her.....

O beautiful flower
With roots of gem
And a golden stem

You flower
Crying nectar---
I wish to be the only bee
To siphon your tears!

Sefya ubushiku wafyelwe, Kessy
Lesa akupâle

Nalikutemwa

©Sarpong Kumankoma

ONANANI KWASI

ONANANI KWASI
(the stranger).
You have left an ambivalent
Mark on my heart---
A scar of burning peppers
And relieving ice

You have welded twinges
To tingles in my soul

My mind smells of perfume
And rot when I cogitate
The backwash of your coming

Your footprints are
Scattered on my shores
Deep abysses of destruction
And comfortable beds of solace

Your vessels tore the hymen
Of my virgin seas---
The cry of pain and pleasure
Echoes in my skies;
Consented rape!

You tattooed my face
With kisses of truth and deceit
    Your venomous tongue
Poisoned my ears;
         rectified some blemishes
Of my being

My tears curse you
For the evil you afflicted on
My head--the logical sequel
To my driving you away; sweeping
The path of your departure

My smiles bless you---
I stare at the route of your arrival
Dreaming your second coming

Onanani Kwasi
Why do your fruits  taste
Of dung and of milk?

©all rights reserved Sarpong Kumankoma

A THOUGHT IN APRIL

A THOUGHT IN APRIL
We are fruits of the same tree
The wind of dispersal
Blew apart---

Under her shade we dwell
Bearing the scars of a common past

One soil we all have
Our roots crawl digging through
rocks weaving a
Basket of manuring sweat
Along the cardinal points

Unfossiliferous skeletons
Who were stripped of their flesh---
Heaped under this soil
Awaiting their death

They fell felling the toxic exotic
Seeds the sea sowed on our land---
The thorns that were
Piercing our mother's soul

Their blood
Sweat and saliva became
The river that hauled
The uprooted parasitic plants
Back to the villainous sea
That brought them

The diamond-white umoja river
Sans selfish stains

One by one the sea toted
Them to their hearthstone
Thence their roots and branches
invade our home;
And they are deified

If the roots and branches
Of one of our own
Crosses to our home
It is an anathema---
It's sunlight being stolen
It's the soil's meagre milk
And honey being drained

They are  chopped off to
Spark the silliest simpleton's
Mocking cackles

©Sarpong Kumankoma

KAAKAAMOTOBI

KAAKAAMOTOBI
Time speaks:
In those days..
White faced--yet faceless
Monsters sat behind
The evil walls of their
Homes--

Their eyes flamed red
In envy to char
the beauty Of Africa--

Their lips carved
An ugly image of Africa
And their hearts
Swell painfully with
Hateful air to trumpet
Demeaning anthems for Africa--

They fanned
Africa's conflicts to
Blaze wilder and devour
Millions--
And called her
The land of undying wars

They robbed
Africa of her wealth
And built their cities of gold
And changed
The location of hell
To Africa---
And nicknamed her the land
Of eternal torments

They saw
The beauty of
The Sahara and the Kalahari
And her Savannahs
Their fathers married her Safari
The reason why they
Called her the land of drought
Whiles her rainforests
Drank a million million
Gallons of rains
In a second----

They saw her villages
Dance in the heart of
Friendly jungles
They called
her children
Apes and Monkeys
Inhabiting tree tops
But none called
Them pigs----

They saw
Africans eat wisely their
Starry staples
And never got obese
So they called them
Famished--Abotesɛm!

Africa grieved
Over her wasted womb--
Wounded womb--
O her children--blinded--
Bound by deceitful chains
In a dark dungeon
Of colonialism
They knew her not......

Kaakaamotobi
An African Child speaks:
Woka ntam gu amenam
A epue......
Wopam Ohufo
A woto ne barima

Mama your tears
Travelled to the dungeon
To eat away my
Chains-------
In it I have swam to you
Your tears have
Broken down their walls
Their Iniquities
exposed to daylight

I have come to dry your tears
To sing your goodness
Which the aliens
Knew but uttered it altered
To disgrace

To every liver
There is attached
Bitingly bitter bile----
O children of Africa

No more shall
Africa's plenty be called famine
No longer shall
Our peace be called war
We shall no more
See the poverty in our riches

To every liver
There is attached
Taste killing bile
O children of Africa

No longer
Shall our souls
Be held captive by their lies
No longer shall
we see disease as our
maternal cousin
Africa's beauty
We shall forever sing

Mama Africa
I have come to dry your
Tears-----
Cry no more

To every liver
There's attached
A bile------
Mama I shall
Make the delight
In your liver conquer
The atmosphere of
All lands.....

(This poem can
Never be ended
Let me leave it abandoned)