Poetry by Nenyi Ato Bentum

Skits of souls surround a fetish hut
Each scene tells the depth of the cut
This was not a green Greek TRAGEDY

Those who came here never returned
Those who returned never came here

Ferried fathers, aborted abductors;
Sinful sorcerers, paid pawns,
Wayside wanderers, jilted jinxes…

Obroni’s angels muted our daemons
When our elders were on errands in their skins

But did they not tell us the hyena never eats her offspring?
And that the canoe goes but the people return?

CABO CORSO

she sits silently on a shrinking cape
hiding her fears
& shedding her tears
in/to the abdomen of the ocean

CRAB is your totem
the crime happened under your nose

did the fathers not say
the napping elder is as guilty as the thief?

you owe folks overseas:
a. a detailed FOOTNOTE
b. a tongue
c. a soul
d. & an old but warm hug

Bio
Nenyi Ato Bentum is a Ghanaian poet, an Efutuyi and an admirer of anything artistic based in Cape Coast, Ghana