An Elegy – Part 10 – By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr., Ph.D.

(For Rev.-Col. Eugene Boapea Boamah Sintim[-Brown] aka Kwaku Brown, Retired Chaplain-General of the Ghana Armed Forces, 1941-2017)

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And now,

Uncle,

you have gone

to join

all the rest

of your sibs;

there are three more

left now,

two of whom

I couldn’t care

less about;

six of you

crossed over

to the other side;

and now,

I am beginning

to feel

the crater-like

void created

right

in front

of me,

where there used

to be two

deep whorls

ahead

of me…

and now,

all of a sudden,

the transience

of longevity

has gripped

my body

like a

heavy

load,

my feet

almost rooted

to the spot;

and it all begins

to make sense

once more,

what the heart-doctor

told me

the other day,

peeking

at my

naked heart

on the computer

screen

with me…

that one of

these days

the blood duct

to my heart

may have to be

widened

again,

it has been

closing up

micro-inch

by micro-inch

per year,

so it shall

not be long

before I go

under the knife

again;

not that

I ever went

under the knife

once

before…

it was a

camcorder

they slid

down my throat,

into my chest

where the heart

resides

with liver

and bile,

any refusal

could have ended

in me risking

prematurely

joining

the legion pack

among us

now gone

ahead…

ordinarily,

I would have

felt a gush

or two up

or down

my spine,

that frozen chill

of fear

of the unknown

and deeply

dark…

not this time

around

though –

just stared

at the whiteness

of the ceiling

from my gurney,

just numb

and silent

and nonchalant,

save that

split-second’s

thought of

wistful

concern,

when I looked

my ten-

and twelve-year-

old in the eye

and wondered

what it would all

mean for them –

then,

suddenly,

I heard

the ringing

sound of what

our elders used

to say

in times

of angst

and encircling

gloom:

it is God

Himself who

swooshes flies

off the tailless

 brute,

it is God

Herself who

settles scores

brutally unleashed

and long

forgotten…

and God

shall provide

a surfeit

of comfort

and delight

and mirth;

and there shall be

no more death,

for we shall have

arrived back into

the fullness

of where

it all

began;

and there shall be

no more death

in the land

of those

already gone

into the arms

of death –

8/25/17

(RIP)