*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

** I recently spent about two months in Ghana, and the next series of poems will
recount my observations and experiences. Stay tuned!

Elitist armed robbers
In SUVS, Ayariga tractors
Snaking around potholes
Lakes in our roads
With toads of iron-mounted stones
Lakes in our roads streaming away
Into gutters full of urine & excreta
Open gutters with proud chaos
Crafting narratives of chaos
Of our biography of chaos

Our apocalyptic roads
Our uncouth drivers
Our depraved driving
Sanitizing chaos
Incentivizing chaos
Nativizing organized chaos
Evocative appreciation of chaos
Solemnizing chaos at intersections
Ritualizing chaos at cruel junctions

Drivers diversifying chaos
Passengers celebrating chaos
Police surrendering to chaos
Pedestrians saluting chaos
Politicians nativizing chaos
Oh! Chaos on our roads
Our biography of chaos

Plying potholed roads
Our cultural touchstones
Theatrical steering of state
In stolen-wealth SUVs
SUVs in sizzling potholes
Steering on chaotic roads
Our muse of development
Nurtured in cargo-cult mindset
Followers of a cruel religion
Of stolen-wealth SUVs, tractors
Of SUVs that meditate potholes

Ah! Roads with man-made lakes
Surpassing Korle for goons
SUVs sailing for space
Space in Korle-like potholes

Hawkers on potholed roads
Street-kids meandering all
For a share of the stolen wealth
From the pot-belied politicians
The haves-in SUVs, tractors
That ply pot-holed roads

Chaos on our roads
Roads of graft and greed
Built by non-specialists
NDC/NPP Chiefs as contractors
Builders of ramps of death
Of structural autopsy of deaths
Deaths on our roads
Celebrating deaths on roads
Our biography of Chaos

So Today
MPS
Ministers
Chiefs
Engineers
Bankers
Prophets
All officials of organized chaos
The elitist armed-robbers
Live in SUVs, on tractors
SUVs on the eaves
On eaves of broken roads
In SUVs that navigate chaos
In tractors that build chaos

Tomorrow
Potholes will be lakes
MPS
Ministers
Chiefs
Engineers
Bankers
Prophets
Officials of organized chaos
Will live on ships, boats
To sail in potholed roads

Elitist armed robbers
In SUVS, Ayariga tractors
Snaking around potholes
Lakes in our roads
With toads of iron-mounted stones
Lakes in our roads streaming away
Into gutters full of urine & excreta
Open gutters with proud chaos
Crafting narratives of chaos
Of our biography of chaos

*Akadu N. Mensema, Ph. D., is a nationalist Denkyira beauty. She is a trained oral
historian cum sociologist and Professor in the USA. She lives in Pennsylvania with
her great mentor and teaches Africa-area studies at a college in Maryland. In her
pastime, she writes what critics have called “populist hyperbolic, satirical”
poetry. She can be reached at akadumensema@yahoo.com