Revolution of the Scavengers

included in New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Saba)

Akashic Books

The poems…are deeply invested in the love of a citizen for fellow citizens, citizens risking their all to stay alive… The democratic care evident in the work of Henneh Kyereh Kwaku provides hope.

Henk Rossouw, from the preface

Something is in the Water

The PVC pipes are burst, from my condo I can see the water squirting out of the cracks. I
know everything is cracked here, our roads, our laws, our schools—our lives. Everything is
leaking just like the water squirts into the dirty gutter. The water becomes useless, these are
not metaphors. The ground in Hohoe leaks water, the PVC pipes behind the Police HQ leak
water—in Hohoe, water is scarce. If I do not fill my barrels on Monday, I’ll have no water, no
water till Thursday & this isn’t a metaphor—Monday isn’t about the beginning of this country
& Thursday isn’t how far we’ve come. Monday isn’t Kwame Nkrumah & Thursday isn’t Nana
Addo. I know the pipes are burst, just like the police & their wives & husbands & kids, but
who cares—who cares about this country where there is no God of accountability?

Henneh Kyereh Kwaku