A Death Foretold. a poem by the late Prof Kofi Awoonor

                                                A DEATH FORETOLD


Sometimes, the pain and the sorrow return

particularly at night.

I will grieve again and again tomorrow

for the memory of a death foretold…

I believe in hope and the future

of hope, in victory before death

collective, inexorable, obligatory;

in the enduring prospect of love.though the bed is empty,

in the child’s happiness

though the meal is meager

.I believe in light and day

beyond the tomb far from the solitude

of the womb, and the mystical night,

in the coming of fruit

the striped salmon and the crooked crab;

I believe in men and the gods

in the spirit and the substance,

in death and the reawakening

in the promised festival and denial

in our heroes and the nation

in the wisdom of the people

the certainty of victory

the validity of struggle…

I will not grieve again tomorrow.

I will not grieve again.