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