Bullet stains at the crossroads
Still linger in our jubilee.
You would not believe whose voice
was pinned into the slaughterhouse without a word.
Attipoe served our country
and was owed a grave.
In the burnt embers of the city,
Odartey stood
where silence was publicly demanded.
Adjetey’s deserved moon rose into mourning.
When authority answered with guns,
The parade of legitimate beggars
birthed history.
We must have thought
time would heal everything.
But strip the heavy dirt
from our nation’s voice
And you will hear this old dirge
And dance still beat our people
When they stretch their arms
toward the portion of the national cake
they have laboured for.
We have watched GoneAfters tears
turn into lifetime hashtags
Same tears that once fell
for wounded countrymen.
Those same tears have returned
to harvest us into new dawns,
While we sing anthems of justice,
empty of soul, no tomorrow.
Never so much history in today
that now our own people parade
white and blue sirens
to silence freedom walks.
They reserve their stinking promises,
but when we act our part of the system,
They tell us
Of what demands qualify as protest,
Of which decaying reserves of our country
are forbidden from public recovery.
Oh you empty court
Chewing rights till the marrow,
Drowning the city alive in long injustice
What wrong did the people do you
That you make their rivers of mercy dance
Where there is no sea?
Let it be known
We are our ancestors’ nightmares
We will not watch the night in silence.
If orders from above come for our march,
This country and her miseries
Will be put to bed as audible as a cemetery.
⤪⤭
Mr. Poetivist, born in Ghana, has a voice that echoes with the heart of his homeland. Notable previous works include a commissioned series of poems for Isshaq Ismail's exhibition, 'Beyond the Fence, Begins the Sky,' at Efie Gallery, Dubai. Additionally, he debuted his radio playwright "The Village We Are" on Berlin-based radio-Refuge Worldwide, and his poem "Ode To Afrika" was featured as the lead poem for TEDxAccra 2021. His most recent production of Dear Ife – Live at the British Council, Accra has further solidified his place as a prominent voice in contemporary poetry.