Nature had its turn
To get me shackled with dreams I can barely hold; so I burn tomorrow today

Mama!
The feeble once me now walks with honour;
Life favoured me; Providence bore me manna;
Home have I built you in my manners;
You will love it; it’s my prayer Oh mama!

I have trampled on coal and snow;
Ate the viper’s venom

I have wounded the truth
And savored a lie just so that I can fly

Dusty days have I seen
Where showers of rain bruised the desert warmth with winks;

Nights clothe me with despair
So if I should again once return,
Do treat me like I rightly deserve

On my fainted prelude,
The skies coughed in milieu
Over the temple of priceless mid dews

I’ve cried and tried
I’ve mourned my pride
I have murdered in cold blood the uncertainty of my stride;
And I have seen the scorpion on which I ride

So if there ever be a next time I should come home, mama, please treat me right

I have seen the nakedness of a corpse;
Tasted the breast buds of a cadaver;
I have nurtured pain and drowned it down the eyes of a river;
Like before, I have lost it all

Never call me worthless

Heard have I a call to graze grace from grass
Yet like the white lamb, I have won

I’ve been scarred twice and a thousand;
I’ve sneezed out fear thrice and still counting

So don’t tell me to sell my hammer for a piece of gold mama*

Before I left, I had cursed the snow.
Be that curse broken; this hate I though

Should I again come home;
Feed me not breadcrumbs with liquid coal

For I have become the predator’s predator;
I have become the prey’s god;
I am the farmer’s cutlass; the preacher’s sword

Talk to me not about courtesy;
She’s already the lady I court

Mama!
Should I come home, please do accept this rose* I bought

# Nana
Kwame (Ghana)