The Road of Death
By Geosi Gyasi
the meat that scattered
across the road was human
flesh after all. that morning,
the ruling party had come to
our village to launch
a newly-tarred road.
before the road,
was a dying footpath
like the wrinkled skin
of a blind old woman
with a tearful
inscription in her heart:
blacken.my.grey.hair.before.i.die
we were watching from
our blue kiosk,
my sister
& i when a fleet
of cars lined up the road
from the center of the village
to the launching grounds. for
the first time in my life,
i saw a Rolls-Royce, the car
in which the president was
driven in. my sister stood
in surprise and thought
it was only Queen Elizabeth
who owned one.
the riders motorcycles
led the day
into a misfortune
over the newly-tarred
road that fueled the people’s
anger just a month into
elections—ɛkwan na yɛ bɛ di,
they rolled their tongues to
fold away the cursed road
which caused the clouds
to knock on the doors of heaven
for the poor soul of the village girl
whose blood like Jesus, poured
onto the cross to wash us anew
from the sins of our leaders
whose eyes were firmly gripped
onto the glories of now.
they painted the township
with the colour of a chameleon.
my sister could not swallow
the horrible fate the
village girl had to endure
from the riders acrobatics before
the president stood out of the car.
her head pounded into a forbidden
fufu & her soul burst out with
a loud voice like that of the last
breath on the cross of Calvary.
we stood outside watching
like a movie ’til mother whisked
us away. that night,
the whole village wailed
for the new road of death.
Geosi Gyasi is a book blogger, poet, and interviewer. His work has appeared or forthcoming in Galway Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, Indiana Voice Journal, Silver Birch PRESS and Juked. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Geosi Interviews Fifty Writers Worldwide (2016) from Lamar University Literary Press in Texas, U.S. He is the winner of the 2015 Ake/Air France Prize for Prose.
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