Samuella Conteh. No biography available.

 

Broken Dreams

This life,
Full of lingering shadows
Eating our ears of hope;
So many broken dreams

We shy from the beach at night
For fear of wandering ghouls
Tormenting our repose;
So many shattered dreams.

Peeping through cracks,
We long for the moondance
Disrupted by flying fragments,
Piercing and hacking virgin breasts.

Oh! How we long for the taste of roasted cassava
Dripping palmoil,
and burying our teeth in the new corn
Listening to stories of old;
So many broken and shattered dreams.

 

War of Dogs and Men

In the war of dogs
Men stand and laugh
And clap
As teeth and claws tear flesh
For the survival of the fittest
Ready to bury the weakest.

In the war of men
Dogs cower in fright
And horror
As bullets and machetes tear flesh
For the survival of the mightiest
Happy to devour the carcasses.

 

Dreams

Let me travel the world of dreams
And be
And see
And feel
And do
All that reality would not let me
What freedom!
What perfect freedom are dreams.

 

Tsunami

Tsunami! Tsunami! Tsunami!
How sweet you sound to my ignorant ear.
Tsunami! Tsunami!
Your name rolls on the innocent tongue
Melting like butter under the sun,
You fooled me with your beautiful name.

I thought you were a girl;
A beautiful African girl
Born to a woman
whose known unhappiness
barrenness
and tears.
gave birth to hope.

Tsunami
You could have brought happiness
Laughter
To a sad woman.

Your mother could have cooed to you
"bless you, my child"
my sunshine,
my joy
Tsunami!
Joy

But no!
No barren womb beckoned you,
No ready hands welcomed you,
For you are death
Coming with a mess
Confusion
Tsunami.

Bursting out, rushing out;
Death!
No graceful steps;

Death!

Inhaler of life and laughter,
Tsunami!
Crusher of hope,
Tsunami!
Hell tolls a bell,
Painting the bizarre into my beautiful canvass.

You fooled me, Tsunami,
But I pray :
Never again would a Tsunami be born!