(For Rev.-Col. Eugene Boapea Boamah Sintim[-Brown], Aka Kwaku Brown,
Retired Chaplain-General of The Ghana Armed Forces, 1941-2017)
When life
has deserted
flesh and
blood,
only memories
remain
like bones
when flesh
has been ripped
off by rot –
memory
into whose
dream-like
filmic realm
you have begun
to live
within us;
those of us
whom you left
behind
through whom
you shall continue
to live
and survive
through time
and the ages,
till you become
the stuff
of legend
like the rest
of those who
went ahead
of you,
those who came
before you
and like you
left
their giant
and indelible
footprints
in our minds
which we
celebrate
in times of
both grief
and joy…
Wofa,
I am
in large part
what I am
and what I
will still
become
in the years
ahead
because of whom
those of you
who came before
and went ahead
did become;
just as you did
become what
you became
or could not
become
as well
in large part
because of what
Grandpa Sintim was
and did become
by climbing onto
the broad shoulders
of Nana Ntim
and Nana Sintim
and Nana
Aboagye, our
direct ladder
of descent…
Death came calling
at midnight
Tuesday last,
Uncle Kwaku Brown,
but you could not
resist…perhaps
because it was
of absolutely
no use
to resist –
they tell me
it was cancer
of the prostate,
but that was only
the jargon
of those who only
speak
the tongue
of flesh
and blood;
the spirit speaks
a different
tongue
and dances
to rhythms
of different
drums…
there is more
to the known
and seen
world,
even more
to that
which is
unknown
and
unseen –
the funnily
pathetic things
we do
sometimes,
when we beat
our chests
like drums
and pretend
to own
ourselves
and our
lives –
last Tuesday
the real owner
of your life
came looking
for the same…
I was away
and did not
hear the knock
on the door
of your heart,
I suppose
in Heaven
the night before
they had been
talking
about the need
for you
to render
account,
having overshot
your stop
by six-times-twelve
moons,
when growing pains
begin to
set in,
at seventy-six,
it is only
by Her grace
we make it
awake by
moments of
breaths,
by each crack
of bone
and limb,
one’s vision
begins to blur,
it is time
to move on
to the other side
of this life,
time to wash
your hands
clean
and dine
with
the gods…
7/19/17
(RIP)