Weija in the jungle
Green-leafed mountain and river
There was a time
Of fish and boats
Deep were the veins
Of Weija's river
In the evenings one gathered
In the light of kerosene lamps
Our simple songs
Were good enough
Light-footed children danced the rhythm
That flowed in our hearts
Hands clapping
Like the wings of birds
With lizard grace the sacred flight
Of limb and body touched the earth
And wedded soil and sky
A tin box drum
Was good enough
In the evenings I kissed your salt
In the light of kerosene lamps
With lizard grace
The night commenced
And children danced
In our dreams
Wild hemp grew freely
In the fields
And radiated in the moon
Iridiscent in night-lorn green
We breathed with jungle river starkness
White flared our eyes
Dark our pupils
You sold jollof at Makola
And I made ice cream of cocoa
And sugared lemon
So we lived
Sometimes we ate, sometimes
We waited
For better days to come
The fishermen threw out their nets
We helped them pull them in
We shared the catch
And thus the days
Were gentle on us, river genies
Bore no ill will for you and me
Na Weija days them
Now long gone
Them genie tire watching us
And time 'e go past me and you
My heart jungle make suburb now
And where 'e dey me I lost
For some place not remembered
Today pickin no buy that my simple
Ice cream
And for Makola them catch you
For no carrying
Licence
And them fish too 'e tire
And 'e go
Me, I dey
Still I dey
For I can't truly go
Anywhere
Once day them go say tse yase, and me
I go go
On my journey that day
With the river, the jungle
And the children and life
And you too
On my mind
*Jollof = jollof rice
*Weija was a village in the Greater Accra region, a place from my youth in Africa, which is now a residential area, practically a new suburb of Accra
*Makola is a market area in Accra
*tse yase = the formula spoken at traditional Ga funeral rights when the coffin is lowered into the ground
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