Like sunshine rain, 
Hello lovely readers,
This month, I'll be sharing some of my favorite poems I have written so far. The first would be this one, because it was one of the first few poems I wrote when I began to take my poetry seriously.
As a child, living in the city of Accra, I spent a lot of time in the market which was loud, large, and yet so colorful and rich. I would do anything to make sure my Saturday afternoons were spent in the market instead of the quiet kitchen at home. I found that markets in New York were not the same as markets in Accra. I was highly disappointed because everything was too organized and I couldn't bargain for anything I bought... So mechanic. Here's a little bit of nostalgia in black ink and free verse.
A Taste of Accra
My feet in cold clay.
Dried in the burning heat of Accra.
My wet kente lies on twisted blue ropes.
Welcomed by the high-pitched chattering of fat market
women. Sweet juice from red tomatoes and acid green peppers,
blend with the sourness of gari, dried fish, and wet snails.
A school girl squats near a Forget-Me-Not tree.
Her beige overalls sag between brown legs.
She bites into a purple Indian almond, waving away flies.
Peep! Peep! from long lines of lorries
standing under the orange sun.
Fading in the music, I hear
the invisible crickets wail,
and the pitiful moan
of the Christmas goat.
I love this piece because i have no idea how I wanted to end it. Enjoy!
I only thought about him a few times after the bread incident. I couldn't go around the whole schoool searching for guys who liked bread. But whenever I went to the cafeteria I made sure I got some bread and looked all over the cafeteria for a guy with curly hair. I think he had green eyes. I never took time to observe.
But I found him. At the Lamont library cafe. I sat quietly scribbling what I thought was a good revision to a paper I had previously drafted. I lifted my head just in time to see his slightly bent back making it to the other side of the university. I just stared quietly. Excited. He lived near Lamont. Maybe he didn't ,but I had found him.
He never passed by Lamont whenever I was there, but one day I found him sitting a few feet away from my seat at the cafe. My heart raced with enthusiasm. I sat at my regular seat facing the door, with my back turned to him and his friends. They spoke Spanish. I couldn't piece the nouns and verbs and proverbs to create sensible English sentences. I simply waited. He passed by me and I whispered a soft "Hello." He must not have heard me in the very quiet library. My heart sunk deep. He was soon to return and I decided to smile. But he looked over my head. I sighed in frustration and scribbled nonsense on my paper. I stayed for a few minutes after he left but returned few days after. He was there this time and alone.
I read in an article yesterday that you're the only one responsible for your happiness. There is no relationship that can make you happier than you already are. So instead of waiting for someone to make you happy, you must search for it yourself and keep it in a box. When you're sad, open it slightly and let it blow over you like a cold breeze from the refrigerator on a hot day.
Swimming is my cold breeze. I didn't know how to swim from Adam. But, it looked so cool from a distance and I wanted to try it. The first time I stepped in the water was in 2013 and it felt so heavy. Only 4 feet of stress. So now how do I swim? All you have to do is float and kick your leg in the water. What a simple task. I might sign up for the Olympics after. But I could barely let go, let alone float. After my first kicking session, I couldn't walk. So much pain. But, I came back the next day because my goal was to swim not to try kicking. After a few tries, I still couldn't float. So I gave up. I was only able to float and kick without holding to the wall after my roommate left for another conference. But, I found the urgency to finish my goal.
I continued this only for the summer of 2014 but still was in 4ft. How was I ever going to grow?
This summer/spring I wanted to challenge myself. I would go into 7ft and then 13 feet. But, I would start with 4ft with the intention of never going higher. It so happened that the pool I swam in extended from 4-7ft. I didn't know and kept swimming with a kickboard. I was able to swim properly and only began to panic when I couldn't stand up. More like when my feet couldn't touch the ground.
I was embarrassed. I was doing fine until I knew.
There are many things you know today that is keeping you from taking a risk and enjoying what makes you happy. There was no way I could have drowned. There was a lifeguard, and my friend who could swim perfectly in 13ft water nearby.
Oh, didn't also tell you I can swim backwards?
