POEMS: The Fearful One & Serwah

The Fearful One

I fear you, Fearful One,

I fear even the first letter of your name.

I hate you to the last atom of your body.

You who visited my grand mother

And laid her hands on he bosom.

You who visited my town

And dressed it in black clothes.

The lion and the ant, the giant and the dwarf,

All vanish at the mention of your name.

Indeed, I hate and fear you!

You who have neither matchet nor gun;

But only utter the word ‘come’,

And kings and the servents follow

With the speed of a stone rolling down Afadjato.

You whose invasion claims life in thousands,

I fear you greatly! So visit me

Only when age prevents the last fibre of my boy

From obeying the dictates of my wish.

                                                                                                DICKSON KWADZO ADDAI

                                                                                                                PHILLIP MACDINKO

Serwah

There was nothing they could give her

Except a white frock;

She died so young.

They hailed a taxi and Serwah was driven away

To join those who would never wake up

From their sleep.

They said she left nothing in the world,

But she left something in the world:

A wound in my heart

Which can never be healed.

                                                                                                                                ALBERTA AYIREBI - KWESIE