dent
i.
the seat is upon us again
solemn, yet a reminder of death
faith, love & forgiveness
amplified by stripes sheep, astray and
laid thus that sacrifice unknown foe
pierced six thousand sons on target
to end the population
the nation pain is going on active over
the woods police conformity with law
gain failure marked as Government
protect each other until poses threat
to things that are not like the revival witnessed
dent, again bright on everything
I appeal to you, in the blood spilled on us
ii.
I appeal to you, in the blood spilled on us
come lift lives into absence
wave the organisation to rise tragically
mark a day report a stand
guard the breach disregard the economy
lives steer our nation onto path
fortune is extremely troubling
wearing exceptions with recklessness
majority gathers to eat, drink, laugh and talk
in subject to spite the huge dependence foreign regard
government forging funds for development
short is the capacity to finish
come to life have no doubt
God too shall pass the battle for the night
Copyright © 2022 by Henneh Kyereh Kwaku. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 15, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.
“‘i’ and ‘ii’ are excerpted from a sonnet sequence in progress. The attempt is loosely inspired by Terrance Hayes’s and Wanda Coleman’s American Sonnets. However, these sonnets are also erasure poems extracted from speeches by Ghanaian presidents. What does it mean to say a country is murderous—your beloved country? What does it mean to say that you sacrifice for your country when it’s trying to sacrifice you? You know the truth: these politicians will sacrifice you for the money.”
—Henneh Kyereh Kwaku
Henneh Kyereh Kwaku
Henneh Kyereh Kwaku is a poet of Bono heritage and the author of Revolution of the Scavengers (African Poetry Book Fund / Akashic Books, 2020). A 2022 resident at the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora, and a recipient of the 2020 Samira Bawumia Literature Prize, he is originally from Gonasua in the Jaman South Municipality (Bono Region) of Ghana.