My darkest moments are those leading to my success,a hesitation where I question – do I deserve this?where my ambition drains like a time lapse in reverseand I set out to seek a great perhaps through verse. Notes tuck themselves back into books,passages fold themselves into memoriesmy tongue reabsorbs every spoken wordwhich precipitates into a…
Mothers Sing a Lullaby
(after the 1994 Rwandan genocide) Mothers sing a lullaby As the dark descends on trees Shutting out shadows. The sensuous voices swish and swirl Around shrubs and overgrown grass Hiding mountains of decapitated dead And the glint of machetes That slashed shrieking throats. In these camps without happiness Mothers maintain the melody of life Capturing…
The sun & sons of Africa
They come here with empty faces Looking for the sun The equatorial sun rays hit their eyes, They blink and find the son, Poised, smiling at their wallets With a hot, hard, black, cocked gun. There is no argument to be had with such a gun between your legs. Between sips of badly brewed, black,…
You Are Woman
For a season barely eons old Immersed myself in quietude Awaiting the day woman shall step into her own Trapped in this cloud of silent obscurity How does the world blithely pretend? For all the good there is out there Permit me to lay it bare How they sweetly make compelling claim Liberate the woman;…
When is it right to rape a woman
Why, Silenced cries Sealed behind doors of blame Her breasts linger out Like ripe mangoes Sending me invitations Her big thighs barely covered by Her skirt made my blood hot Her eyes said she wanted it A piece of my manhood Thrusting thrusting thrusting That’s when it was right When is it right to rape…
Loving God
Have you ever fallen in love with the sea Loved her so fiercely Your orgasms are unending. Uncompleting. Unrestraining. Damn.. Love it when she’s mad When she reaches out in waves Tidal energies immobilise my senses I rise into her Deep into her Feel her heart beat In the middle of her vulvic ocean Motion…
Roberta Turkson – Robbie Ajjuah Fantini
Roberta Turkson’s career in poetry started in 2011, as a way to drive the pain off her chest, after failing to fulfil the fondest dream of having her own traditional Ghanaian restaurant in Nashville. “With lots of time on my hands and pain in my heart, I took to writing which turned out to be…
Good Morning Kampala
Clouds are racing above Kampala Sunrise peeps from the head of its hilly protrusions. Suddenly, rapid gun fire exchange invades our atmosphere Heavy feet scamper to find footing on our broken roads “Hooligans are demanding for #change!” They say. Arrows of rain armed with hail stones join in the human pelting But you Rain, Where…
Fixable
You are fixable, hold my hand & let me mend your brokenness. It will hurt less, the falling & crushing; you will get better at sculpturing your bits & pieces. I won’t leave. I’ll wait for daybreak & we’ll figure out what to do with all this sunshine. Link to the Italian translation
My son Nok
You turn your head away‘he is my son,’ I say‘he was taken out of my grip’, I sayHe learnt how to shoot with a gun. He shot from village to villageenemies we all becamelapena leaves couldn’t hide uswe were handed blankets, beans and poshointernally displaced we became. Then I heard he was dead.‘he is my…