From Lampedusa with tears of joy

This literary piece is in solidarity with those who are mourning the tragic loss if their loved ones as a result of the boat that sank off the coast Lampedusa near Italy. The victims as reported were migrants mostly from Africa who were voyaging to Europe in search of better living conditions. This sad event is another blemish to the history of the human race which took place on the 3rd of October, 2013. May their gallant souls take respite in eternal bliss.

I

The turbulent tossing topsy-turvy

Of the soulless sea,

Battered and shattered the mammoth

Calabash that ferried these fine souls

To the land of copious cowries.

The steps of decisions that swept your

Feet to douse the fiery pangs of paucity,

Defied death’s deadly debacle.

You silent brave warriors, welcome home,

Welcome to the fabulous tunes

Effusing from the flutes of

The infinite ancestral flutists.

Welcome home you brave remnants

That reduced death to its dismal degree.

Rejoice, you valiant worthy sons,

For you reminded death of your

Toughness that typified the hides of the

King’s war drums. The living salutes

Your flames of resilience

That ebbeb not with the tides.

Your presence arouses hope.

II

Worthy ones, to your kinsmen these

Words you bequeathed:

‘We took the rough route to turn

Our backs to the insanities of our

Venal elders. They stored the best

For themselves and snatched the rest

From us. How were we to survive?

Like vassals, we laboured in our palaces.

Why merried they in our misery?

Why are their hearts reeking of evil?

Where was the pledge of equity in progress?

The elders must right their wrong affairs.

Reprioritising their priorities they must,

As manage they nobly divinity’s boons.

It was never our wish to slave in foreign

Lands, and never was it our desire

Root our roots in strange lands.

Our flight was an instinct to

Wet our long drought tongues.

Never, never should our innocent bloods

Be sacrificed in such turbulent sacrilege.

May the elders manage well or

Risk sacrificing posterity in such

Perilous manner.’

SOURCE: OKOFO-DARTEY SAMUEL

E-MAIL: sodesq2000@yahoo.com