UNEMPLOYED

Glories and riches were we promised

So we would endure the teacher’s tirade

The differential equations and the organic formulas

All which seem but nought now

As we bombard our governments

With our cries of unemployment

The teacher wants more recognition

The student seeks a justification

For enduring the classroom and the teacher

And the poet sits back

Smiles and thanks the teacher

For teaching her to write.

A MOTHER'S PRIDE

Through the thickening foggy blanket,

Near the coolest glistening stream,

Where the two mountains are married on common ground,

I struck gold.

Beneath the dripping cocoa leaves,

Beside that stubborn boulder,

I heard the sound of gold.

No sweeter sound have I heard.

There lay my treasure,

Unguarded, unapproached, unassuming.

With eyes so bright the stream looked dull.

With a giggle so carefree my heart sang in tandem.

My beautiful treasure

You will I guard with my life,

Love with my heart,

And guide with my God.

Forget the gold.

You are my rarest diamond.

SMILE

You gave me a smile and now I'm giving it back.
Except the more I take, the more I receive.
The more I give back, the more I wanna give.
It keeps jumping off the walls of our affections.

It draws out its reflection from the mirror of the receiver.
When it is genuinely given, it is genuinely returned.
If it is forced, who can fault the receiver's reaction?
It's returns may be simple but priceless.

Receive my smile with these words:
'You are my reason for writing these'.

POWER

Funny thing about power
She pledges allegiance to no one
She asks no permissions
She seeks no favours
She just takes
She's all appetite and no soul
She sees pain and it's all another vulnerability to be exploited
She notices joy and seeks to manipulate it
She respects no one
Watch out!!
When she grabs on to your shirt-tails, you are her slave
Maybe not forever but then, isn't forever overrated?
Before you say you've got power
Remember she's got you
But she does have a weakness and his name is pride
They are siamese twins, inseparable
You get power and inherit her brother
He gets to drop the axe on you.

ALL GROWN UP (‘SIESTA’ & ‘CO.’)

I was 9yrs old, in 5^th grade (class 5) and enrolled in one of the best schools of the time. Swedru International School (SWIS) was a lonely place to be for a shy kid like me. My temperament and ability to fit in are not the focus of this piece, however. This piece is to celebrate the words above and recount to whoever cares to read the reason I so love them…….. (Ok, not love them exactly but I doubt I will ever forget them either). Simply put,

‘SIESTA’……….. is a short afternoon nap.

‘CO’………… is short for ‘company’ meaning a group.

By the end of my second day of getting into the school, I had figured out what siesta meant all by myself. The spelling of the word proved difficult for me for a while (the whole of that term actually). Sister Leticia’s own private joke about the exercise didn’t help me much in figuring out its spelling. Sister Leticia was our dormitory prefect and she used to go from room to room saying for anyone awake enough to hear; ‘oooh, see Esther. See how Esther is crying’ referring to siesta. Now who wouldn’t think siesta was spelt ‘seesther’ with a statement like that. At the end of the term when I went back home, I asked my mum and was so relieved when my mum finally gave me the spelling of the word.

‘Co.’ gave me an experience worth mentioning now, even though it’s a slightly embarrassing tale.

The first time I heard ‘co.’ being used, it was used in a sentence similar to this: ‘Anita and co., speak English’. I had been there for about a week and I had never heard anyone with the name ‘co.’

Consecutive times I heard the expression ‘so and so and co.’ all the while wondering who co. was. On two very distinct occasions I ran to the location where some girls and ‘co.’ were supposed to be breaking some other kind of rule. When I got there, the group had already started dispersing so I took quick notes of the members and disappointingly noticed I knew all of them by name and none of them had the name ‘co.’

When I got home for vacation I had a lot to tell my mum about and she had a lot to hysterically laugh about.

In retrospect, I don’t know, for the life of me, why I had to wait for a whole term to end before I answered these burning questions in my mind but I guess that is what growing up is about.

ECHO

In this empty hollow place

With nothing for company but Echo

I am tired

I am torn

I am lonely

I search for Echo but she eludes me

She is probably scared and lonely like I am,

If she has nothing to do than to speak my words back at me

I hope she is lonely enough to show herself though

Because I have a feeling that no matter how long I search,

I am never going to meet Echo.

GHANA COMMERCIAL BANK (ASAMANKESE BRANCH)

Today, i went to the bank. I sat in line and kept fuming silently because i wasn't attended to. After an hour of sitting in the same position without moving forward in line, i asked myself for the umpteenth time why i still do business with this bank. I looked up again at the man in the red shirt who happened to be the first in line. He had been sitting in that front seat for more than an hour now whiles the only teller 'kind' enough to attend to the withdrawing client's line kept serving customers who were in for money transfers.
What was infuriating was that customers were waiting in line and the stalls were empty (with no tellers in sight)
After an hour of waiting, i went into the manager's office to ask what the problem was. He glibly told me (with an air of indifference, i might add) that the network or link or whatever was down.

I have been a customer at GCB since 2006 and this is their favorite go-to excuse (the link is down). So I ask; what exactly is it with GCB? What kind of network or link are they using? After all these years that the 'link' has been giving them problems, you would think that the bank's management would have found a lasting solution to the problems by now.
I don't know if those of us on the outside are the only ones who foresee this company's doom somewhere in the future. Does the company's management also see it? Are they concerned about their customer's satisfaction at all? Your guess is as good as mine.

In my opinion, GCB was built on a kind of rock. The rock being the monopoly status it has enjoyed for so long and probably still enjoy in some places. Things are rapidly changing however. Competition is springing up everywhere, everyday. The 'rocky foundation' they had is but a pebble now and they seem not to notice.
I have visited a few other banks and my experience tells me GCB has no excuse for giving poor customer service.
All these notwithstanding, I commend GCB (Kotobabi Branch) for their customer service. Or maybe I just caught them on their good days.
I advise that the management of the company (national level) must find a way of providing the same kind of service in all of their branches. I for one already have one foot out their door.

  

FIREFLY

FIREFLY

(to any one who has been in doubt or afraid)

by Audrey H. Kumordjie

From a distance I thought it would burn

Was so afraid to touch lest I be consumed

Then I got close and couldn’t believe

Such a small creature with so much shine

I touched and it was so fragile I was afraid its light will die

So I put it in a jar

And watched from afar

All the brightness it could produce

For it was created to be admired.