Annual Floods: Our Anomic Inactions

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

We see the floods

We saw the floods

Rolling

Churning

Destroying

Angry floods

We talk about the floods

Mourned with the floods

As it flooded our cheeks

Today the floods are gone

Tomorrow they will come

Today we celebrate anomies

We live to see another flood

Our colossal gift

Of chassis of incompetence

Beams to all our anomies

Atop our totem-pole

Bearing our seasons of anomy

Of cycles of hopelessness

Of hallucinogenic fantasies

Of imitating others

Others who otherize us

Dancing like lizards on ropes

Dancing like the setting sun

Ah! Shadows cast askance

Like the setting moon

Outlines of downcast shadows

Daylight in delightful darkness

Flood

We hear it all

We see it all

We talk about it all

With captivating eloquence

Like sparrows before dawn

We complain about it all

All that is wrong with us

But our complaints are anomies

Cyclical anomies

With whirlpools of pain

So another season of anomy

Another season will go by

Watersheds of our cloying

Cloying banalities of anomies

Ah! Oh! The Floods

We hold them in our hands

Our cracked psyche

Our archives of morbidity

Of FAMA NYAME syndrome

Of preposterous victory lap

Like dogs chasing after hyenas

Our cycles of anomies

Unleashes toxins of inaction

Vultures waiting for prey

Corruption goes on

Greed and graft go on

The floods will come again

Power outages will go on

Water shortages will go on

Korle Lagoon will survive

Our cycles of complaints

Our cycles of inaction

The floods come

The annual floods

The floods kill us

We bury the dead

Homeless return home

Government officials rush in

It is photo-ops

Poised in 4 X 4 vehicles

Government takes loans

Media gets news

Media sells paper

We wring our hands

We move on

We see the floods

We saw the floods

Rolling

Churning

Destroying

Angry floods

We talk about the floods

Mourned with the floods

As it flooded our cheeks

Today the floods are gone

Tomorrow they will come

Today we celebrate anomies

We live to see another flood

*Akadu N. Mensema, Ph. D., is a nationalist Denkyira beauty. She is a trained oral

historian cum sociologist and Professor in the USA. She lives in Pennsylvania with

her great mentor and teaches Africa-area studies at a college in Maryland. In her

pastime, she writes what critics have called “populist hyperbolic, satirical”

poetry. She can be reached at akadumensema@yahoo.com