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