Because the universe is a case study misunderstood to be moving in reverse and you’re the source of a river Between a myth and a dream Between a lisp and a scream there’s something inside you that’s real that unravels something about we There’s a riot in your throat and untouchable stardust under your feet There’s a heartquake 3 ribs above your kidney and spring flowers under your tongue There’s a gated morgue roofed with tainted cloth in your memory and a century old moon beam running from ear to ear There’s a cultured chaos outsourced by raiders in the shelves of your shoulders and spontaneous sunlight wherever hair sprouts on your scalp There’s research for a singular vision, a particular mission, a unified theory before the mirror and swollen sense of music under your thumbs There’s a banner bearing words like divergent, contradictory, incoherent, paradoxical, delirious over your forehead and miles of miracles on your mind There’s something about being lost written all over the aquarium of your thoughts and there’s something about you that identifies itself as love There’s a cornerstone of broken bones in your morning poems and there’s something about your trained touch that makes room for unheard aching voices There’s an impending cataclysm behind the liquid crystal screens of your eyes and untapped joy within the circumference of your jaws There’s a lawmaker colonizing all the rainbows around your nipples and untamed truth all over your tastebuds There’s this scientific, technological, and artistic reach for the minerals under your skin and the immortal, infinite, and selfsame sun you breathe There’s a tumorous archive of ghosts in your yesterday and God in your first morning gasp

he wakes up in a location reading is seen as geeky occupation - virus of grapevines needy fetches pools of high BP and he dug oil in the middle of his compound just last night and he has little to fry fish with and guess what he doesn't have lights panning prose from the source, he wants just one mic to protest his toes closer to the earth than his second hand pro keds he starts to scroll negative 3G internet on his phone kuffuor gallon with 2g water his mind a mine like Congo current mood is Zongo, and the only thing shining, the sun through his 'fro mind foks, mind foks doctor no dey heal blind spots blind spots blind spots blind spots psychic no dey heal mind foks mind foks her body be billboard in your mind zone ei dey read say come back home her blood be stories speaking through your phone ei dey talk say come back home come back home ei dey talk say come back home come back home mind foks, mind foks doctor no dey heal blind spots blind spots blind spots blind spots psychic no dey heal mind foks mind foks he writes a will to the stars to cremate his ash and precipitate away these scars spread from his past each day he goes to sleep it’s in a dying bed his body doesn’t even know it yet his mind on the other hand holds 40 flags of regret what’s a protest to a power when the former is a strangled flower you could see his friend is pain every hour he holds hurt close paints love in the sanity to wax the cold paints love in the sanity to wax the cold mind foks, mind foks doctor no dey heal blind spots blind spots blind spots blind spots psychic no dey heal mind foks mind foks out of space we dey create live today find your place know your tastes night or day

Nfie nan biaa yɛ to ma mo nso monnyɛ hwiaa wotina apakam wo gye nkyea twa woa bɔ wo nyɛ woa sɛdiɛ Nfie nan biaa Yɛ to ma mo biomua , yea kyea Nea ogu efuo so enhu edua ba Yɛnnyɛ mmoa na woe bu yɛ nkwasia Are you a Party activist? - display a poster Are you a proper lobbyist - donate some dollars You be election publicist - attend our meetings Congress lyricist - door to door greetings Political mites, mouth submissions Police bribes, fraud religion fund-raising, backwards vision Vote leaflets, dodgy printing Foot soldiers on the mission You tell we say we all winning The process no be convincing Wonna protests you no listen No focus, no precision More locusts, wrong decisions Dem throw we in dem prisons You fi steal more so you different shoulderpads of non-fulfillment Jokers job condescending The campaigns, the champagne, the waiting, debates Untarred lanes, the ranting, the same thing, be fate? We want change, the complaints, brain drain, mistakes Your mansions, fake functions, deviations, GH The nonsense expanding, we facing decay The modern day dungeons, the slavery replayed Ambulances lined for drone cameras Healthcare abroad for yo parliament Reflects you dey turn yo back on us Our confidence against yo cowardice Politics always objective be offensive Bowls for Offertory concerts for collections Dem forget colleges Nkrumah built for progeny Dem give we nothing, dem give we promises '83 famine, pots without porridges Highjacking state pockets, rich and complicit Biz yo old boy what be June 4th for Rawlingses Or cocaine to kokonte, koti offices Verandah boys activism 1946 talking drums tap for trendsetters talking sense coup was bloodless, Kutu Acheampong took office then Most had the coffers spent, most had incompetence Operation Feed Yourself, importing roughages Education potholes, nepotism companies Reflects you kraa dey turn yo back on us Beyond return to rotten continent Aduro bɛgye woa gye sɛ atere ma Nfie apem nie yennhu agyenkwa

Tanya Evanson: Plant the plantain Throw the seeds down Avocado campaign Land speaks to young and old now Plant the plantain Avocado campaign Land speaks to young and old, the seeds down Throw the seeds down Throw the seeds down While waiting for land Grow yourself open hand Pepper, palm, produce and sand Throw the seeds down Throw the seeds down Kwame Write: Mo ndua ennuaba Wo ne wo nua Wo noa a ɛbɛ bene Dabɛn ne kyena Wo ne asaase Mooko ntɔkoa Woabɔ adegya na woowi wonsa Food is a force Resource from source Feed the planet, plant it. Trees Tanya: Feed your neighbour water with your own blood, you dig it? A tree in your name, children's future. A resource from the source, of the source, from the source... All thumbs are green Open original hand The planet's original band Grow yourself free now Dig yourself out now Water us clean now Get out the downtown Throw dem seeds down Throw the damn seeds down Kwame: Cocoa Tetteh Quarshie Pawpaw from Ketekrachie Moko ɛne bankye Green kontomire mogya duro Farming for urban folks you know Water the seeds down Bitter leaf, bitter lemon, sweat sweet, spirit xylem, baobab feet, down to earth for photosynthesized food we eat grow a tree town, free town grow yourself free now Human body and soul, rebirth Human volcanoes, our bodies libation to earth

Capitalism sways a long arm Statutes and statues, long pipeline alarms Imperialist underground mountain of scams Military ptsd, indirect guns Popes and pulpits, chokes and vomit, ropes and culprits, Evoking voters out of uninformed ones Indirect political plugs, gloves and gauntlets Transnational corporation, continuation of covenants Developing country constricts CIA interfering in governments GI Joeing intertribal conflicts Country interest, peaceful pickpockets Multilateral institution prospects Cheap labor saviour, Jesus lobbyists Raw material chaser, pests and poison New global order disorganising the conscious (Mbaa yɛ tɔ yaba yatima) Economic aid rainchecks Cashcrop mineral remainders Rapid expansion of the nameless Ghost name garnering World war traders Dependency theory makers Perpetually negative balance locations Global market place liquidation Walter Rodney educated us Marxist Leninist underfakers Kwame Nkrumah reading the last stage of imperialism to naked neighbours A circle of deaf gut scrapers West African cocoa land takers Foreign aid sucking states High rate of interest band players History no go forget our voices Hyped encroacher noises , natural reserve destroyers History no go record our silence Denial of right pythons, social cleavages violence History no go forget our voices History no go record our silence

Lamont Carey: You don't really wanna die You don't really really wanna die See the choices you make Can make your path go either way You can get lost in the sauce and get behind bars for the rest of your life Family takes flight, so you're all alone tryna figure out how to turn a prison cell into a home 45 and you're in there, tryna live or get along Judges doesn't answer your letters Your release date, is it more of a guess Late night screams of a man terrified Cuz he can't lay down so he has to lean against the wall and place his shoulders against the wall and hope a man don't try to get behind him Kwame Write: Wonder, wonder why the system locks the maimed man in Wonder Why the program cages the woman pregnant with the world behind the scenes Is the channel of your heart being tuned in? Wonder, wonder Red is more than a colour We’ve bled more than the last keeper of the strangled dollar Cotton bags hang from eyes sold to sleep, awaiting the awakening of transparency the colour of gin He tried to abolish alcoholism from his torn system till his kidneys waged wars The brother with the blacker bladder She wonders wonders if she still lives slipping through the sieves Sentences like entrances Interest is bent on leaving these enclosures where my future has been bench pressing Wonder wonder wonder how the bunk bed business has bodies bloating with loss Wonder wonder wonder why prison warms up to us like a smiling stranger, like a second home, like a broken country poem Lamont: See the trick is It's to convince you that poverty is all that there is So you'll take chances Put your manhood in question Now you standing there with bloodshot eyes With no white under the street light Ready to kill, ready to fight, but... So you don't wanna be a thug? You just wanna find a way to take care of your family Because that's who you love But shawty these streets gonna eat you alive You either gonna end up in the penitentiary or shawty you're sure to die So stay focused, don't become hopeless, just put your grind up Put your mind up, you'll find a way Cuz I don't wanna see your shoes hanging off of those wires of the landpoles Cuz you know... Kwame: They say I’m not sharing a cell so I should feel I’m more free The last time these kids placed a call, had connection with the devil with a soul of concrete Ever met the innocent choking with a mouthful of committed crimes? It feels like there’s always a thunderstorm in poor and mostly black neighborhoods Legislative empty faces elevating, the judge is racing to connect our names to burdening cases, we end the day next to the sour place of lecherous Satan You are an inmate but you’re no less alive You thrive awaiting the freedom flight You don’t really wanna die You really really really don’t wanna die

Jessica Care Moore: Me, me, me, me I'm that nappy headed girl who can tell you your future in that jar blue afro sheen Written off ghetto Carolina geeky, need me name your fears by first name Representing the best of game, hot mouth bringing like she got some Honey wine in her pocket Hiding poetry under old severed locks Growing roots under bushy ponytails And this is who you're marrying This is who you marry, Mary The woman you found too familiar Reminding you too much of what you represent in this country Aint it hard baby, aint it hard baby, being as beautiful as we are Masquerading king chameleon skin when African canvas glows in the dark I bit off a piece of the ark That's why Black womens are doubly smart, are doubly smart Be cussing you out in pairs Got ivy growing from under our hair Damn Jessica don't you smile child for a little while This morning I was on the front lines of the food stands for selling our babies food covered in plastic saran Make your own man ashamed to hold your hand Come back casualty casually deserting the desert to Taste exotic waters when I'm the well, well well Now I need new religions, chakra protection plants Maps to the centre of the earth, make a right at the birth mark Accelerate when you smell fresh arrogant Speaking as a sexy breathing technique so I'm a silent freaker Slow leak, you can easily ignore if you're not listening for the drip in the middle of the night Give me a reason to write, give me a reason to write This is my bout, I'll fight for you lover, language breaker Suburban night danger, international invader, knocking on all the wrong doors For you I'm always at war, always at war, always at war, always at war, always at war, always at war, always at war... Abena Boahemaa: I have many more questions for you But our conversations know nothing of brevity They have disregarded the moon and consumed entire nights The first time we hung out with the constellations They stayed bright eyed as long as they could burn but eventually started blinking in fatigue Before we were close to turning in, the stars turned over to sleep Pulling around them the entire blanket of night By the time we tiptoed to bed, there was neither cover nor sheet of darkness left so we slept with our legs exposed to the edges of sunrise I have many more questions to ask but our conversations have an appetite that does not respect the body's need to sleep They are ill-suited for the obligations of this life The 6 AMs, the breakfast, the ironing, the making of bed, All there is time for is quick morning prayer with bowed head cuz Lord knows You know better than to stay up until unGodly hours shadowing constellations You and I both know that this late night courting of chemistry is impractical It is incompatible with tomorrow Tomorrow demands its own portion of our time You and I both know that although these moments are magical Tomorrows are necessary I have many more questions for you But I'll hold the rest behind my teeth So if I start to speak with a lisp It's because I'm trying to restrain a river between my lips Kwame Write: We dey Sing of sun swallowed streams, Dey scoop, dey shrug, dey shuffle sand for palms, wonna marrows bleed Mouthful of motherland Texts yoga stretch, flex halogens wombwords in tune for moon ein nerves the verse we cook be served like som magician ein memory den magnetic movement, word De source dey hang from heavy planets dey evoke vocal verbs from veterans dem dey vibe for wonna veins Minus violently venomous verbosity Disk jockeys dey dig the vinyl vaults for wonna eyelines tho As we dey pour, thick palm soup be what wonna names dey drip from Volcanic vim dey keep wonna lips warm Cascading waterfall coding sekof de water-themed history The ocean timeline mystery Trees dreadlock, we dey fetch rocks den sling tear drops find signs for cocoa landscapes, we dey sew wonna society fabric together each time we lose stardust of soul, den throw riddles night time mek ei revive rhymes, refine the light for ritual river rides The ocean dey blind date the moon The sun dey discharge the stream Wey som pigeon circle dey lef corn husks for de writing farm archive for progeny mek dem cultivate the stories which dey seep from the sides of wonna lungs Later dey crystallize, dem dey settle next to molars Body language of storytellers who dey use words build griot’s fortress Ancient programmers dey remember the flair, forget tap shoes wey ei dey on air Dey decode the music for the hubris, symphony syncopation of seamless souls , we dey do more than put flesh of voice where silence dey bed, we dey turn dimensions of space in wonna head Dey paint light years of melody for the scars of clouds Tho we rich, when ei rain e dey pour the summary of wonna pain dey honour we, before the boundaries demarcate where Ghana be, before we start celebrate 6th March annually, even tho the circle no complete as squares dey turn tins disorderly Wonna people, wonna people still dey make the culture breathe

Freedom be when dem fi allow osmosis process How de solvent ocean Washing we to coast Stop membranes from closing Spontaneous, aim fi your concentrated pouch We floating You noticed De motion We focused Osmosis Migration of course dey like osmosis process We comot from ocean Bodies bleed revolt Stop the walls dem growing Lungs dey breathe the salt, All the nameless ghosts We woke with Emotions Devotion Open Osmosis Freedom be when dem fi allow osmosis process Black man dey travel go unravel de resources dem snavel, Come see how e hard Racism ropes humanity under attack We wey we dark, light dreams for the tracks Wise man say look inside for the facts Deep down you fi find the happiness you dey lack empty stomach no dey work like dat Job with yo factory card monthly As time reach we go agree on de cash Mouthful of flowers for forgotten graves Stamped all aches in a passport page Float on ballot boxes where pirates plague Cocoa farmer for chop Swiss chocolate Ancestors baked, show us proper cake You chop cash crops, our farmlands break Human osmosis - open a permeable mind state What be common be de compact shuts Constant acts by constructs that encompass us Stalwart partitions, forced to cast, Monster tacts, yo contract dat We born to last, wonna culture black The ultra blast, obnoxious rust The haunting past, unconscious marks, They drown in mass, dey got our back Dey warm our hearts, We dodge attacks The raft jam-packed, we lost our cards We know for fact, obstructed path, Ei no add up, dem wan subtract, Yo old gold heart , dem wan ransack Yo mind and art, the bronze and brass To let light in, why restrain Human osmosis - open a permeable mind state

(It's like an echo from home..) Dear earth, I dey write this letter From home: a zone in Kinshasa where they steer death My culture’s sheer birth Ancestors sabi, afei diɛ daabi Emergency sekof lobbyists collect your tear worth It’s serious, prior to 18th century, Scientists no suspect prehistoric climates go different from modern period Resource rush lef the race men delirious If you’re curious to take a cue Stay in tune, your landscape mirrors terror they deal you Nkanga’s art could teach you Architects of capitalism feel you Touch you in wrong places like rapist men do Let’s not pretend, unlooking the trend, energy received from sun, it’s tense Check stats and info Equilibrium loses meaning, seasons weakened, Check how the wind moves To pin the direction of migration of our indigenous people The ocean currents with broken silence Greenhouse gas concentrations following high trends Ocean-atmo circulations shown on troubled timescales Ozone depletion sending tensions in bones of scientists Fossil fuel combustion, envisioned through swollen eyelids Impressions bold on mindprints Dear earth, aerosols pull on air of souls, there’s offshore negligence Mother of the rock, soil, sediments We gather at the source, pure elements Sincerely yours (...it's like a good pair of shoes when you put some shine on...) Climate get emergency, Check, Public safety tendencies Climate change is only news to social snails Public safety crisis on a global scale Mother Earth we understand you’re rather upset The forest cover got nicked The pressure of deforestation collects under your breast Bees leave in fleets, Plastic peaks on the turfs, We inhabit in methane release Observing new weather patterns, umbrellas parting Volcanic eruptions, cosmic flux happening We check your energy budget to remedy the subject Humans: usual suspects, newscasters stammering In China, they are tree planting but the Chinese got our corrupt leaders to sell Atewa for bauxite mining - mek yo mind dey ofainɛ Ɛnam biibi so na nsuo wiɛ Asaase yɛ daakye mma diɛ

Nsuo yiaa na ɛde yɛ kɔ (Takes up space in our souls) Nsuo yiaa na ɛde yɛ ba (Sankofa days of our dreams) Nsuo yi wɔ bɛɛbi kɔ oo (Multiple journeys and worlds) Nsuo kita daakye kra (Future memories and realms) Nsuo yiaaa \\\. Daakye kra Daakye kra oo daakye kra wɔ wonsem Mothers from the comets Sure birth all earth pulses Stop death of resources Aura dermis sources All Atlantic stories Ocean depths of voices Centripetal forces Water kisses moon’s lips Water calms, enforce quakes Solar intercourses Spontaneous abortions Land and air divorces Water wouldn’t forget Volta Nile Flint forces Months of murder, mortuaries With the different corpses Will return through vaults with Colourless contortions Water’s friendship toughest Waterscapes be cosmic Daughters, diggers, dolphins Lovers, dreamers, orphans Mami Wata, sorcerers Water layers organs Planets platforms portals Drop the borders, gorges Water takes down walls big Watch the igneous rocks break More than hearts of horses Water races roughest More than hopes of homeless Water slowly covers Water came saw conquered Water cuts diamond chips Water creates and courses Love and hate and options Water death discourses One atom of oxygen Formless shapeless pouring Iced out glacier mountains Water vapour soaring All the natural forces To water they submit Heights of ocean surges Heart emotion splurges Root phloems of spurges Trunked elephants, pigeons Soul water enforcements libation, defences The inner ear blessings Feels with great depth, hear it Flows to low point there is Unconditional caring Throughout time and journeys Tears will bind, keep shedding Integrity inherit Reorder the essence Nourishes, refreshens Reproductive urges Floods that fill the pelvis Sperm and ovary merges Gift that gives so endless Nsuo ei, woantiti yɛ ntemuo Nsuo ei, daakye wɔ wo nsemuo