Clues in Blue

Tell me your dreams

Let them reflect your innate pleasures

Hide from me the means

I’ll discover them on sail down your rivers

Tell me your convictions

Provide me with clues not specifics

I’ll employ traditional percussions

And play to you a sound so terrific

Share with me your past

Be detailed to the letter

For I’ll have no stone to cast

I’ve already been deemed a sinner

Share with me the songs

Songs that sing away your pain

Riddled in lust and odds

Lyrics that renders you vain

Run with me down the aisle

A walk will steal my haste

Yet do so with me in style

For we must still keep the taste

Let me tell you my dreams

Let your convictions guide us

Let my past not linger in your songs

Let the aisle accommodate our foremost run

Kenneth Atsu Dogbey
TDL.

Beads & Booze

The odyssey of the drunken lover

Began when Yao was hitherto sober

He would rant all day about love

Boast about escapades with his many lovers  

Till the sun was ashamed and cowered

Awo was no older in age than her teens

Her plot was to find another man she thinks

Would fall prey to the charming beads

She wore appealingly around her waist

Awaiting the dance of the tribesmen to begin

Legend had it that

When the Agbadza dance was in full swing

And titled men broke their backs in dancing

Awo, clad in nothing but waist beads

Would appear and gyrate her hips to the alluring beats

The odyssey of the drunken lover

Persisted when Yao was somewhat sober

He noticed the graceful hips of this erotic dancer

And craved to make of her a bride

This, he thought, would add to his pride  

Awo danced all day to please Yao

Painted his name with the throb of her hips

She would occasionally invite him to join in

For she knew the end was near

Only she could not tell him when

Time came, when Awo must go

She disappeared with the wind

Leaving her waist beads behind  

With a handwritten note and

That was when his woes began

The odyssey of the drunken lover

Abated when Yao was no more sober

He would wear her beads on his stiff waist  

Swallow a bottle of booze - that’s all he ate  

And mimic the sensual dance of his lost lover

A poem by:

Kenneth Atsu Dogbey

TDL

Unsung Heroes

Myth has its place in history

Strange thing no one owns up, who placed it there

Legends crafted centuries ago from the memory

Of humans who did a great job of storytelling

Making men in their folklores come alive

Thus convincing mortal women to make their wives

These heroes fought battles with unrivaled forte

Dined with gods – and they evolved into our gods today

Lived like they knew they were making history

Were pious, pure yet sometimes petty

Humans commemorated their pronounced lot

Hardly giving it any much thought

Though no one experienced their glorious existence

Men worshipped and contended any lurking resistance  

It all began innocently as tales

Like the age-old story of humans with tails

Still, there is that one or many

Who hardly achieved one or any

Of the exalted lot of our fêted Heroes

They may even pass in your judgement as morons

Mere mortals who took interest in you

Downtrodden yet fought battles for you

Love and taught you to love another

Value you as the only thing that matter

Streamline your desires and fashion your ego

Losing their pride against their own ethos

They share in your gay moments

Lighten up your grey moments

Big hugs that promised day

Hopeful smiles that lessens the afflictions at night

These mortals appear larger than life

Yet the clock of life is ticking them out

They, bound on earth in constant strife

Hoping that someday you’d bail them out

Better yet acknowledge what they did contribute

Not until its read from bleached pages as tribute

Take a moment to look around you

You’d find your Hero - in many mortal forms

Once you give up the myths and unfounded customs,

You’d find that your Hero was always seated next to you.

Photo Credit: Agyemang Duah Kweku Jr. @Flickartstudios

By: Kenneth Atsu Dogbey 

A Member of TDL