Poems of Woman Scream 2017 Accra Ghana

Biddah Senam Aku / MzPoetry_Gh (ThatEweGirl)

Forced Bride

A girl I had known to be cheerful and gay

Was suddenly fearful and frail

Uncertainty had replaced hope on her face

A girl I had known to sing joyfully and  say; I want to be a Lawyer

Was suddenly quietened and shoved away; to become a layer

As though she were a hen

Her dreams crushed, her hopes smashed

As though they were rocks that needed to be quarried

Don't worry, you'll find joy in marriage... That's what they said

How? When she still finds joy in being fed with porridge? Like the child that she is

A cry always introduced the dawn of the new day

It was as piercing as the silence of the dark night

As awakening as a motherless baby's wishful cry for a midnight breast suckling

It is the cry of an afflicted bride

One as weak as a seedling

As helpless as a newly hatched chick

As innocent as a baby

As clueless as a new mother

Her supposed groom, as old as her father

With a belly as though he were pregnant

His skin as wrinkled as dried leaves

His breath foul from ceaseless emptying of bottles

His odour as stinking and sticky as juice from a rotten fruit

He pounces and bounces on her

Like a predator on a prey

His conscience as dead as a door-nail

He thinks of nothing more than his selfish self

Feeding his snarling hungry libido

Which seemingly never gets satisfied

His acclaimed love as equal as hatred

She's got no choice than to accept her fate

With no strength to fight

No confidence to resist

Lest her family be made to suffer untold humiliations

Her voice lost in the noise of tradition

She cries to empty her of fear

Strengthen her for her fate

Ready her for another seemingly hopeless dawn

And Usher her into another day of a helpless child wife

Dear old man, can you imagine having sexual relations with your daughter?

Oh no! I see that frown on your face

That child you want to marry could be your daughter

That child you're giving away could become a doctor

Stop the trade of girl child for money and undignified prestige

Stop crushing feminine dreams and hopes to satisfy masculine ego and libido

MzPoetry_Gh (ThatEweGirl)

#End_Child_Marriage_Now

A cry always introduced the dawn of the new day

It was as piercing as the silence of the dark night

As awakening as a motherless baby's wishful cry for a midnight breast suckling

It is the cry of an afflicted bride

One as weak as a seedling

As helpless as a newly hatched chick

As innocent as a baby

As clueless as a new mother

Her supposed groom, as old as her father

With a belly as though he were pregnant

His skin as wrinkled as dried leaves

His breath foul from ceaseless emptying of bottles

His odour as stinking and sticky as juice from a rotten fruit

He pounces and bounces on her

Like a predator on a prey

His conscience as dead as a door-nail

He thinks of nothing more than his selfish self

Feeding his snarling hungry libido

Which seemingly never gets satisfied

His acclaimed love as equal as hatred

She's got no choice than to accept her fate

With no strength to fight

No confidence to resist

Lest her family be made to suffer untold humiliations

Her voice lost in the noise of tradition

She cries to empty her of fear

Strengthen her for her fate

Ready her for another seemingly hopeless dawn

And Usher her into another day of a helpless child wife

#End_Child_Marriage_Now

Afia Amoaa Oppong-Kwakye (Nativegirl)

Child Not Bride

 
Under the silvery stare of the moon,
The children sat to listen to soul refreshing tales
Beneath the starry blue skies,
We smiled and laughed and galloped our ignorance of
The world away
It was in the nakedness of the breeze that I learned
To smile my soul away
And I enjoyed it;
A perfect peace
And out of the blue came the fifty nine year old
Weary man, Alhaji (FUSENI)
His defective smile exposing his cola nut stained teeth
With a keg of palm wine
And a saddened cow in hand
That moment, every joy I have known turned
To ashes in my mouth
The very ground on which I stood gave me up
The warm uterus I knew turned cold
The strong arms that protected me slipped off
Like garbage, I was disposed, abandoned, rejected,
That night, my guardian had darkness for a smile
My innocence forced out of my being
I had tears for supper
That night,
That devastating, dismantling, smashing, shattering night,
The stain on my body could not be cleansed
I battled with unknown demons he possessed
And as if by magic, he planted his seed
On my tiny piece of fertile land
I sat helplessly watch my innocence slip away from me
In the glare of the sun
The moments I spent with my friends
Crushing right in front of me
I am just a child but you snatched my childhood
You stole my joy
You murdered my happiness
You strangled my future right before my eyes
I’m a child not a bride!!
My body and soul and spirit and being
You tortured
When the seed you planted in me withered and died,
You called me a witch
You stole my joy, you murdered my happiness
You strangled my future right before my eyes
I am a child not a bride!!

Erica Mawufemor

The woman

A woman
She is perceived to have come out man's rib
And not from his feet to be walked upon
Not from his head to be superior, but from his side to be with him, to stand by him at all times......
Under his arm to be protected, and next to his heart to be loved.
Like the butterfly, we unique in our own ways
Staying true to ourselves is the only way to realise our potentials to the fullest
We all as humans were created in God's own image to fulfil a purpose
Oh!, but a purpose to us females, which could never be achieved if we were born males!
Indeed we as women have been side-lined and ridiculed since time immemorial by the society we find ourselves as the weaker gender, but this I must say, gives no room for us to hide the ambitions and dreams we pursue behind the ignorance of some gender misconceptions.
It’s high time we set ourselves free from the mental bondage of women being nothing like men.
It saddens my heart whenever I get to think or see the trauma my fellow women go through in certain relationships especially all in the name of love.
How is it that, that one person you think makes you happy, is the same person to scar you or put you through your worst?
Let us all endeavour to bear in mind ladies:
Sacrificing and settling ate so not synonymous.
When you sacrifice, you give up something in order to gain something better.
On the other hand when you settle, you compromise on something while sacrificing your opportunity to get something better.
In the same vain, how you sell or portray ourselves is exactly how much you get bought therefore if someone or something no longer makes you happy or consider yourself worthy, its best to walk away. Please!
Make sure you settle and sacrifice for something and someone who is worth it.
To be happy also appreciate yourself first, be true to yourself and you're good to go!

Mariska Araba Taylor-Darko

Clipped Wings

She was shackled at thirteen

Young innocent and blind

She never had any reason

To think otherwise

Through rose coloured glasses he seemed so kind

She though his jealousy was a sign of protection

But as usually happens, he clipped her wings of a dove

She changed because of those chains

Her petals closed no more to bloom

The light in her eyes locked behind a watery gaze

Her heart was filled with permanent gloom

She grew thin with a heart of stone

Saw no joy in his kind of love

Felt no happiness with his wealth around

He clipped the wings of his beautiful dove

Ten years have passed

She killed him!

She cried

Not from inside but tears that quickly dried

The caged bird cried “liberare”, free at last

The cry of freedom, emancipation and liberation

His death was her salvation

Free at last, acquitted

“Crime of Passion” they said

“Self-defence” they cried

With new wings of a dove

Reborn like the phoenix

She would soar away

To enjoy her freedom

Never to be shackled again by false love

The total bliss of L I B E R A T I O N

Free at last

Benjamin Obu-Simpson

I Know You

I know these hands,

Clean and perfect

Manicured in the cold and

Painted in warm colours.

In your grips, peace died,

Pride took on tatters and

Smiles were barred from the sun.

I know these legs,

Gallant and trusted.

The silence in your steps is one so gentle to the world,

 But in my ears I recognize cunning steps with a violent pounce.

When you trapped a prey,

Gloom swept through quiet days and

Trauma shared soft pillows of the night.

I know, yes, I know this voice.

I know the voice I leaned on,

I know the voice that walked me home,

I know the voice that introduced me to me,

Looking at your lips, its serenity was twilight.

I know you.

I know you from the night I felt the cold,

I know you from the time my muscles failed under your weight,

I know you from the minutes you confused my screams for a moan,

I know you from the moment you spoke of love and cursed my name,

I know you because I have known you

From the hands that planted questions on my fluid mind,

And now to undo what is done is to unstring a sperm and an ovum.

Georgina Akua Padi

Gone were the days

African University College of Communication

Gone are the days when the woman's place is the kitchen

Gone are the days when the man is always right

Gone are the days when women has no right to education

Gone are the days when women have no inheritance in their father's home

Gone are the days when the girl is subject to the boy

Gone are the days when women are properties to their husbands

Gone are the days when only men and I mean the high priest is allowed into the temple of God

Gone are the days when women are seen as baby producing machines

Gone are the days when it is only men who provide for the home

Gone are the days when only men speaks and women listens

Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!

Now is the time

The time of freedom has come

The cloth in the temple is torn

And now women can also behold the beauty of His presence

The time has come for women to rise up

The time of freedom is here

Freedom of expression of views and thoughts

Freedom to exhibit talent and skills

Freedom to add value to ourselves

Freedom to grow into the image of God

Not freedom to fight

Not freedom to rub shoulders

Not freedom to gossip

Not freedom to quarrel

Not Freedom to back bite

But freedom to rise above our potentials

Freedom to showcase to the world the glory of God

Freedom to impact lives

Freedom to leave a legacy for next generation

Come along

Don't sit

Don't lazy about

Don’t waste away

Don't fail your generation

You are a carrier of the Glory of God

Gone are the days

Yes! Gone are the days

I wish all women happy International Women's Day