Adjei Agyei-Baah
Born 1977, Kumasi, Ghana
Living in Kumasi, Ghana
Adjei is the co-founder of Africa Haiku Network and the Mamba Journal, Africa’s haiku voice. He became passionate about senryu in 2016, after his discovery of Failed Haiku, a journal edited by Michael Rehling that encouraged him to write and submit each approaching month. His interest is to grow this genre in his homeland and Africa, in addition to haiku/Afriku that he has been championing for some years now.
Blog: http://www.africahaikunetwork.wordpress.com
More biographical information on this poet may be accessed at https://haikupedia.org/
sweet bus dream
getting down
at the wrong destination
lɔre mu nna dɛ
yɛma wo ntosoɔ ka
baabi ara wobɛsie ho
skipping prayers
a posing dragonfly
returns me to my knees
mpaeɛbɔ awerɛfie
ahudede bi ɔbutu hɔ sane de me
kɔɔ me kotodwe anim
grandma’s dimple
her only treasure
she never passed on
abrewa afono mu tokuro–
n’agyapadeɛ baako a
wamfa annya nkyirimma
swan in flight
Lufthansa
a copycat
sukɔnkɔn atufaa
lufutansa
yɛ suantoɔ
walking past the coffin maker’s shop
my son asks what his boxes
are used for
meretwam wɔ funudaka yɛbea
me ba bisa me
nea yɛde ne nnaka no yɔ
university bookshop
under private management
more stationery, less books
suapɔn nwoma tɔnbea a
ankorɛnankorɛn da ano
nkrataa kakraa bi, atwerɛdeɛ bebere
my new haircut
not till my wife
says yes!
me tiri ahosiesie
enkosi sɛ me yere bɛka sɛ
me ho ayɛ fɛ!
crowded stadium
the little roar that followed
a big goal
agoprama so akansie
ntiamu ketewa bi a
ɛpue firi goo fɛfɛ bi akyiri
chained smoker
the face of death pops up
in his puff
wusinomfoɔ–
owuo nfoninin pue
wɔ ne nwusipu mu
swallowed orange seed
granny scares me
with a big tree sprout
mmofra berɛm aseresɛm
aberewa hunahuna me sɛ
ankaa aduaba a mamene bɛfifiri me yam
friends in all-weather weathering together
adofonom atenapa wiewie kɔ wuom
amakom, ghana
growing up among weed smokers
father’s cane points me straight
amakom, ghana
merenyini wɔ bonsamtawa twefoɔ mu
m’agya ntenesoɔ abaa maa me hwɛ m’anim tee
father to son
his baldness, I prayed heaven
to let that cup pass me by
agya agyapadeɛ
ne tiri ho tipa a mebɔɔ ɔsoro mpaeɛ sɛ
ɔma no nsane me ho
emergency ward
seeing her bed empty, only to
feel her tap from behind
nkwanhyia mprenpren hwɛbea
wobɔɔ m’abati firi m’akyi
berɛ a mehunu sɛ wo mpa so da mpan
polygamous marriage
father’s pension baby
become my first-born
awaredodoɔ
agya ahomegye ba
bɛyɛ me ba panin
puberty rite
suitors’ eyes roll along
the curves of initiates
bragorɔ–
asugyafoɔ ani di afurusanee
wɔ mmayewa nkofie so
the race
without a winner
I and my shadow
mirikatuo a
yɛnni nkunimdifoɔ
me ne me sunsum
riverside…
collecting water
collecting gossip
nsutene ho…
mere sesa nsuo no
na mere sesa kɔnkoɔnsa nso
Mamba Journal, Issue 2
paying the driver’s mate
with my last torn money
my son points it out
mede sika a ateɛ
retua hyɛma toɔ–
me ba yi me ma
AFRIKU, Red Moon Press (US), 2016