Accra goes Venice

Once upon a day in June

It’s that time of the year

When we see the ballistic effect of rain.

As roiled waters rise

Hope recedes

But

We hear the chirping and the kwashiorkor chatter

Of bureaucrats and apparatchiks who promise all is well

Even as the waters swell

And who feed us grammar

In the midst of the horrendous dilemma.

Sorry for the pyrotechnics,

The blast, the dead and the loss

Of the year past,

They say,

And they say:

We’ve not lost the plot,

Millennium City Accra goes Venice

This is the Circle marine port

Just await the commissioning,

Domestic and international transit,

Gondolas will replace the okadas

We are awaiting jet skis

And we are getting amphibians too,

We are on par with London

So Accra-London-Accra.

As waters swell

The mayor swears:

Why wail?

Opportunity for innovation and job creation

Bring models we will patent

No sole-sourcing but

Smartt deals only

We have plans for the Odawna water park

With slides and chutes that reach to heaven;

And we’ll lay pipes and

Channel the excess to Akosombo -

The solution to dumsor.

But I roused to hear it’s all a ruse.

Appartchiks inking deals with no inkling,

Tinkering without pondering.

I heard Agua, the dwarf-king

Just made the waters flow

And let the city flood.

Just as Seke-l the money-dwarf bogged down BOG

Staged a heist

And screwed the economy.

Maybe I like this version.

Isn’t it simple?

I no reach the Venetian levels yet.

Our life is run on fables and myths

Sweetened with Komenda sugar granules.

By Yitz A. Nti (yitzanti@gmail.com)