Bolga My Queen

In silent moments

Head bowed

We communicate one to another

Hanged under the tree

Tied to a feather

A torso of a bird swinging at their mercy:

The mercy of the calm soft winds

Untamed is this road that led on

On on to this be wilding sight

Who crafted these rocks?

One on the other

Flooding the area of standing trees

mi 1mar1 da mukma

bahati e inmiabih1 lo

mi 1s4l da mukma

bahati e inmiabih1 lo } 2

lo ny1 sera ele tiya tol y1

mi sola ya porba

yaya muterema gbo, Sing1 } 3

(why are you forcing me, Go away)

In Bongo not tango tanga

This great place in bolgatanga

Stones of dua tankui

That grows bigger with time

Just above the earth

Where your solid edges are magnified

Adored and remain

I leave your sweating pores

Amidst the smiles and hugs

Women on their motor cycles

That dominate the streets

And replace its aesthetic emptiness

In bongo not banga or tongo

I sit very close to the dusty path

La cárimε rising up like a huge wall

A whirlwind blowing at noon

At the centre of erected earth

Scattered miles away from each other

Dried grass at its top

And on the streets to bongo

Not tango tongo

In bongo not tango

Our lips will break at her touch

In lines alone that the tongue can count

How I yearn for your smock your boubou

Your air conditioned room at day

I yearn for your akala and koose

Going round your naked street

I sit by them on the street

Akutu and spaghetti on their tables

Laughter and smiles at the stranger from Accra

We watched the night sky in procession

As it matched on with our body clock

Oh my eyes will wish to see

Not the morning rounds for lunch

Nor the chase for ice blocks at the lorry station

Or a return to town

A return to purchase a broken tool

Or a missing bolt

The delay to pick our lunch

The disdain from eyes, its delay

The melt of ice blocks before its usage

The uncontrolled self that must be tamed

But I see their pretty little fingers

Surround us in the crowd

Testifying to our self-fulfilments:  

The water tank, its grandeur

The rush to join us for lunch

The kind and warm reception

Oh these pretty little fingers

How you went through the heat

My shear butter to buy

How I wondered how you are

Far far away my eyes can’t see

Only these fading memories

which brought you nearer

You who hide between the crevices  

Between the shadows of the rock

Beneath the cow dung and the soil

Lone the brushing of the air reveals

Tome bongo

Don’t hide your  brow in your bosom

Come like the cattle scratch the dust off the red earth

Even if with only a hind leg

I will bow in obeisance to your passing  

Oh that night under the tall trees

The night owl has passed

Its cool windy air flowed

Oh sweet night

Seize the cloth of time

And cast your spells

forever on the sleeping sun

Only a night made it all

Seeing the day break take it all

Glued to each other this unseen thought

To be together forever someday

Those sparkling eyes and dazzling smiles

A bed in time was laid

Prepared to be taken when their hands met

Sisters they were by a table shop

Colleagues they were from afar

The hot tea and indomine cooled the heart  

My being will embrace this smell

The smell of groundnut and millet

when in the bosom of your red abode

Zaana will grow her leaves

Even when it is hot dry and humid

And will walk on bare foot

Throughout Anaafu bisi

Teach us to speak like the man from Accra

Yaaba Mary will teach you at St. Anne

Her horses are already at the riverside

I pray they will drink joyfully

Here comes Bukomboko and Zaana

Oh daghters of Bolga my queen

Live long beautiful ones, live long

For where the heat is loudest

Thou have been left

Oh mighty standing legs

Huge like the elephant thigh

Weird how your branches twist

How they manage their unwelcome treat

Zaana sheds her leaves in the rains

Bukombokom, when it is dry, windy and humid

Each waiting her turn to grow her leaves

Each, her turn to shed it

After her sister has done it

Oh lover I leave in the morrow

And like the way I came in more sorrow

Not having time enough your face to stare

Deep down my memory lane

I yearn it was not as long a journey

A return only to see you

Bolga my queen I leave you

And Bongo Tankui not Tongo Tankui

mi 1mar1 da mukma

bahati e inmiabih1 lo

mi 1s4l da mukma

bahati e inmiabih1 lo } 2

lo ny1 sera ele tiya tol y1

mi sola ya porba

yaya muterema gbo, Sing1 } 3