Sylvester Kwakye is a Ghanaian medical student, and author of “Flying From Nectar To Hive”, a full-length poetry collection. His poems have been published or accepted for publication in Writing Woman Anthology Vol 3, New Note Poetry, Metachrosis Literary Magazine, and Cool Beans Lit.
those days / after a successful coup
our birth has shocked this planet
like an orchid growing into morphine-weed
see, those days have their marks
in red ink on our unforgiving minds.
those days when you could break a shell
of fog and dew the garden—
everything grew well.
those days when you could happily choir
with the congregation in the pen
& scare the swine
it was indeed a blissful morning
those afternoons when you could lay your head
on the sun & bask your cold thoughts
a gentle relief
those evenings were fearless
even the shadows stood in front of a lantern
/
we rushed out of our rooms
& followed our heartbeats to a cul-de-sac
we stop & ask for the direction of the gunshots
from the other athletes in the Brownian motion
no one knows exactly where, until another atomic cloud
forms with dismembered viscera of my people
we chase a never-ending route—
where the garden is a praising ash
where barbecues were lying in gutters
with blood oozing out of them.
the sun is still silent behind the moon
& we still can’t stop running
from our homes
with hopes of reaching a neighboring border soon.